Gods of Change

Howard Sasportas

Description

This lovely and important work from Howard Sasportas teaches us how to respond to the transits of Uranus,Neptune and Pluto with calmness and a knowledge that the more we work with them, the more worthwhile will be the end result.

Sujets

• Astrology

Informations

• Publié par: The Wessex Astrologer Ltd
• Date de parution: 10 septembre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781902405872
• Langue: English

Extrait

Published in the UK in 2007 by
The Wessex Astrologer Ltd PO Box 2751 Bournemouth BH5 2AZ England
www.wessexastrologer.com
ISBN 9781902405254 eISBN 9781902405872
Originally published by The Penguin Group in 1989
This edition © The Estate of Howard Sasportas 2007
Howard Sasportas has asserted his right to be recognised as the author if this work


A copy of this book is available in the British Library
Cover design by Creative Byte, Poole, Dorset



All rights reserved. No part of this work may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission. A reviewer may quote brief passages.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part One: The Collaboration with the Inevitable


1. The Search for Meaning
2. Breaking Down to Break Through
3. Interpreting Transits: Some Practical Guidelines
Part Two: Uranus Transits


4. Uranian Crises
5. The Transits of Uranus to the Planets and Through the Houses
Part Three: Neptune Transits


6. Neptunian Crises
7. The Transits of Neptune to the Planets and Through the Houses
Part Four: Pluto Transits


8. Plutonian Crises
9. The Transits of Pluto to the Planets and Through the Houses
Part Five: The Light at the End of the Tunnel


10. Three Case Histories
Suggested Reading
Acknowledgements
My thanks go to Marion Russell and Eileen Campbell for getting the ball rolling, and to my agent Barbara Levy for dealing so skilfully with the complicated contractual issues which arose out of the Neptunian blue. Thanks also go to Dennis Hyde and Robert Walker for seeing me through the more difficult moments and to Liz Greene, Margi Robinson and many other friends who gave me advice and encouragement. Finally, I am especially grateful to Christine Murdock, whose friendship, support and editorial assistance in the later stages helped make writing this book a much happier experience.
Introduction


Your pain is but the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
KAHLIL GIBRAN
Life isn’t always easy. It’s impossible to live deeply and not to feel pain or go through times of crisis, breakdown or major disruptive change. Although this is clearly inevitable, what is not always obvious is the crucial role pain and crisis play in the process of growth and evolution. While some people fall apart altogether and never make it through difficult times, many others emerge from conflict and turmoil renewed and transformed, indeed, more fully alive. They ‘return’ to life with a renewed commitment to a neglected potential, with a renewed sense of what we might call the ‘sacred’ in life, and with a richly enhanced sensitivity to others.
The ancient Chinese had a wise word for crisis: wei-chi, a combination of two words, danger (wei) and opportunity (chi). A crisis can be viewed as a catastrophe, as something terrible to be avoided at all costs, but it also can be understood as a turning point, a critical step or stage in development – as the possibility for something new to happen, an opportunity for letting go and changing. It’s quite human to draw away from painful situations, to crave for things to return to the way they were before the crisis occurred. And yet it’s also possible that these times can be used as opportunities to develop and grow, to learn more about life and oneself. Something dies, but something new is born. Nothing is left unchanged: the old is taken away, but something different may emerge.
The question is thus not ‘how can we avoid pain, crisis or change?’ but rather ‘how can we understand and use these periods in our lives most creatively?’ Roberto Assagioli, the founder of Psychosynthesis called this ‘the collaboration with the inevitable’. 1 Living fully means experiencing and accepting both the light and the dark, joy and pain. Inevitably there will be times of disruption, even anguish, in all our lives, but there is nothing to stop us from finding ways to grow and learn from these periods. I’m often asked ‘What brings people to astrologers?’ Some of my clients come primarily out of curiosity – a friend of theirs had a reading done and told them about it and now they want to know more about what goes on in an astrology session. Others are motivated by a belief or hope that the chart might cast some light on how they could more fully use their potentials and resources. But in my experience, the majority of people come because they are in some sort of crisis. They pick up the phone and ring an astrologer because they are desperate to know what is going on in their lives; something is happening which they are unable to deal with – their usual ways of trying to resolve their problems aren’t working, and they feel as if they’ve lost control. They’re in the middle of relationship turmoils; they’re having crises at work; they can’t cope with their children; they can’t cope with their parents; they’re confronting a life-threatening illness or facing the death of someone close to them; they are in the middle of a depression or they have lost the will to live. Some people come to me in the hope that I will work magic, and make everything instantly all better for them. Others see my role as astrologer more realistically, as a counsellor and guide, someone who may be able to help them find meaning and relevance in what they are having to face.
In most cases, times of pain, crisis, breakdown or change correlate with major transits to or from Saturn, Chiron, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, or progressions involving these planets. Each of these planets brings its own distinctive dilemma, its own particular type of trauma, test or trial. A conflict earmarked by Saturn is different in nature from a crisis involving Uranus; Neptunian confusion doesn’t feel the same as Uranian disruption; and pulverizing Pluto works on us in its own unforgettable way, reminding us of the adage that ‘life is like a stone – either it grinds you down or polishes you up’. Sometimes two, three, or all of these planets join forces, and touch important points in the chart at nearly the same time, as if the cosmos has decided to ‘gang up’ on a person. But no matter what specific kinds of conflicts, traumas, paradoxes or dilemmas they bring, these planets all have one thing in common: they don’t want to leave us the same way they found us.
Dane Rudhyar once wrote that ‘it is not the event which happens to the person, but the person which happens to the event. An individual meets particular events because he needs them in order to become more fully what he is only potentially.’ 2 Clearly then, our attitude towards pain and crisis will affect the way we go through such periods: if we believe that a crisis is only something terrible and our main impetus is somehow to turn back the clock and get rid of it as quickly as possible, we are likely to stay caught in the crisis for a longer period of time. However, if we believe, like the ancient Chinese, that a crisis is an opportunity for something new to be born, we increase our capacity to use these periods constructively. Some people are fortunate: even in the midst of great turmoil or despair, they can glimpse the meaning or relevance a crisis has in terms of their growth and development, and this understanding helps them through their difficulties. For others, a longer time passes before they can begin to see any purpose in their misfortune, or the opportunities for new life which it offers. And, sadly, a number of people may never come out of the crisis at all – they remain oriented not to the future but to the past, longing for what life used to be like, and forgoing the chance to live with a new, hardwon wisdom.
Our attitudes towards these phases of life not only affect how we as individuals go through such periods, but also how we as astrologers communicate with our clients. If our tendency is to view these times as wholly negative, how can we help others find meaning in what they are going through? If our pattern is to avoid turmoil or conflict at all costs, we will probably (directly or indirectly) encourage our clients to do the same. We will try to make everything ‘all better’ and rescue people as quickly as possible – not realizing that in doing so, we are depriving them of the strength or the transformation which facing the crisis could bring.
The purpose of this book is to focus on the kinds of changes and crises associated with the transits of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, and the potentials for growth and development which they offer. 3 Wherever possible, I have included examples gathered from my astrological practice, and the last chapter explores three case histories in greater depth. 4 This book can be used simply as a guide to interpreting the outer planets by transit; but more than that, I hope it will enable the reader to gain a little more insight into what is needed to turn a crisis into an opportunity.
Howard Sasportas
London, 1988
PART ONE
The Collaboration with the Inevitable
1
The Search for Meaning


Woe to him who saw no more sense in his life, no aim, no purpose, and therefore no point in carrying on. He was soon lost.
VIKTOR FRANKL
Jung once wrote that ‘meaning makes a great deal of things bearable – perhaps everything’. Meaning helps us get through life. We have more chance of dealing constructively with pain or crisis if we can find some sort of meaning, relevance or purpose in what we are going through or having to endure. No better example of this can be found than in Viktor Frankl’s book Man’s Search for Meaning. 5 In this book, Frankl describes the time he spent in a German concentration camp from 1943 to 1945, historical events which, for many, mark a watershed in Western consciousness, radically calling into question our notions of moral and immoral behaviour, or even of good and evil, of the existence of a benevolent deity. From his personal experience, he concludes that (aside from pure chance) the inmates who managed to survive such degradation we