The eclipse effect continues and Tucson

This current energy stream, which started back in December with the Total Lunar Eclipse on the Solstice, continues to bring up major challenges and situations that stir our deepest fears and deepest angers.

Perhaps because that eclipse was at the 29th "critical" degree of Gemini, we are seeing strong effects on people's mental states. Even those of us who consider ourselves mostly stable have been dealing with wide fluctuations in mood. The events in Tucson a week ago are a horrific example of what happens when someone who already has mental/emotional instability is tipped over the edge. And I am seeing many friends and loved ones dealing with situations of anger gone over the top, causing heartache and more.

One friend, who called to talk last night, is currently reading Thich Nhat Hanh's book called Anger: Cooling the Flame. One thing she said in particular stood out to me -- that when anger comes up in us, it literally comes up in us. It already resides within, and it comes up in reaction to something we are experiencing.

Which is why the incoming high vibrational energies can tend to bring up negative emotions and reactions in us. We are being vibrated at higher and higher frequences, and the parts of us that are lower vibrational are coming to the surface.

I did try to find Tucson's birth information, to gather a bit more information on the events last week. The best "birth time" I could find was the date of the Gadsen Purchase on December 30, 1853, when southern Arizona (including Tucson) and southwestern New Mexico were purchased by the U.S. from Mexico. I ran a chart drawn for noon on that day, and then ran a scan for what was going on this month astrologically for the city.

What I found is that on January 8:

• Transiting Saturn was EXACTLY square Tucson's Moon (at 16 degrees Capricorn) -- indicating sorrow, loss, depression, conflict between feminine/masculine, issues with authority
• Progressed Venus was conjunct Tucson's Pluto (exact January 23) -- intensification of relationships, power struggles
• Transiting Pluto was conjunct Tucson's Jupiter (exact February 8) -- "difficulties with authorities who are appointed to look after society's needs, arrests, arousing opposition" (quote from Robert Hand's book on transits) social regeneration, rebirth of faith after death of old perspectives

There are always reasons and purposes for even the worst of events and situations. Often, part of that purpose is the opening of people's hearts in compassion, and in the coming together of communities. Certainly that is occurring now in the aftermath of the events last week, both in Tucson and beyond. I appreciated one line in particular from President Obama's speech at the memorial, especially because it reminds us of the positive side of the Gemini energies:

"It's important for us to make sure that we're talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds."

A hard way to learn this lesson, but if we learn it well, perhaps we can find some sense in what clearly seems so senseless.