Reading an entreaty to Ohio Astrology today to cover a news item from Europe, I began to think again about personal vs transpersonal self. Upon reading the email, I wondered why the writer would think an astrology blog from the US Midwest covering global news would mean anything.

Compared to many places one could live on this planet, where I live can be considered peaceful. Peace means that we can live our personal lives without undue threat of violence. We can read a million books for free from the library. If we can find the funds, we can study almost anything we want. We can live with others or alone, we can live in a bustling city or in the remote, quiet countryside.

In places without peace, peace is sought so that the personal life can be lived. People continue to immigrate to the US for this peaceful life.

Yet at the same time we here in the US live a peaceful life, if we examine closely the elements of our peaceful life, we can see energetic threads that lead us to lifestyles very different from our own. For example, a benefit of peace is having consumer goods available. But if I examine where my clothing, my flowers or my coffee originates, I find similar stories that speak to how economies across the globe must work so that a large consumer-goods store can be filled with low-cost items.

My own struggle in understanding the personal vs transpersonal is that we seem biologically wired to live a personal life. Yet our ability to get beyond the personal with technology has made us transpersonal whether we desire it or not, whether we are wired for it or not.

For example, there is radioactive waste that may take 240,000 years to break down. A personal life created waste that will extend to billions upon billions of lives throughout time. We seem to have broken through both matter and time.

Personal vs Transpersonal Planets

Astrological symbolism is just that – symbolism. The evolution of personal to transpersonal lives is symbolized by the planets discovered during that crossover.

Until 1781, astronomers and astrologers (who were often the same people) noted seven heavenly bodies – sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

As you’d expect, the body closest to the earth, the moon, represents our closest personal experience – our emotional reactions and responses from the push and pull of daily life.

The sun, moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars represent our personal self from how we consciously identify ourselves (my name is, my family is . . .), to how we communicate (Spanish? Italian?), to how we derive pleasure (singing? dancing? sports?) to how we defend our personal environment (gate? guard dog? missiles?).

After the personal planets come Jupiter and Saturn, the first two transpersonal. But they are still within the range of view of your personal self. Jupiter is philosophy, education, religion and any belief system. It’s the story of your life and your community’s life.

Saturn is next and the last of the known planets as of 1780. Saturn is the edge of the world and what protects us from falling off into chaos. Saturn is government, law, rule and standardized anything from currencies to weights and measures. Saturn is the guard dog protecting the personal world.

Uranus

Until 1781, our symbolism was personal and extended to a community that congealed and protected our personal life.

Then in 1781, Uranus was discovered (when it was in the air sign Gemini). This corresponds to the Age of Enlightenment which combined technology and scientific experimentation with ideas of human rights.

Uranus is past the gate of Saturn which created the structure for society. Uranus is a shiny object dangling from a tree outside the gate of your protected community. It calls you to discover what it is. Uranus is freedom to go outside the gate but also entails meeting whatever lies outside of what you’ve known until this moment.

Uranus might sound nice today and Americans liberally use the term “freedom,” but consider that if our sun is the self and Saturn the gate, we’re now straying far from home.

Enlightenment and freedom, as Eric Fromm wrote much about, can be frightening. Life can be much easier when we follow known rules in a structured existence.

Neptune

In Neptunian foggy fashion, its discovery officially occurred in 1846. However, right after Uranus was discovered it was noticed that its orbit had the tug of another object (which was Neptune). When Neptune was finally discovered, it was in the air sign Aquarius.

Neptune is where our personal and transpersonal merge. Did that happen in the mid-1800s? I don’t see it but wonder if this is the connecting link between Uranus and Pluto. Once Uranus and then Pluto hit stage, we had no choice but to be Neptunian. In its revolution around the sun, Neptune sometimes surpasses the orbit of Pluto.

Pluto

Pluto was discovered in 1930 in the water sign Cancer. Soon after its discovery, in 1934, nuclear fission occurred. In Plutonian and unfortunately, human, fashion, it was first used as a weapon. Pluto is the transformer and destroyer.

In 2006, Pluto was “demoted” to a dwarf planet. Like atoms, Pluto may be relegated to the status of tiny but it is more powerful and destructive than ten Jupiters and a hundred suns.

Pluto will be around for a long time to remind your of your nuclear activity. Pluto never forgets.

The Transpersonal Future?

Uranus, since its discovery, has gone through three revolutions around the sun. Neptune just finished its first in 2009 and Pluto is not even half way there although it is now in the opposite sign (Capricorn) from where it was discovered (Cancer).

As the personal and transpersonal merge, like nuclear fusion, I’m wondering if the personal family (Cancer) is merging with the corporate family (Capricorn) as more of our well-being depends upon being attached to a large corporate entity. The rise of the corporation may be our first clue that we’ve transcended the personal self. Even if you don’t work directly for a corporation, a corporation may be guiding your personal life in ways unseen. We no longer can say, “But that’s not me.”

The Internet, too, has changed the nature of the personal environment as an individual in Serbia, far from Ohio, is wondering why astrology blogs aren’t covering the flood situation. The grand water trine formed when Jupiter entered Cancer last June is not over. While Jupiter and Saturn will pass out of water soon, Neptune will remain.

Neptune, that link between personal and transpersonal, will remain in boundary-less water for many more years. While the flooding may subside in Serbia and elsewhere, the water issues facing the planet will not subside as quickly. Water, there’s another transpersonal issue for you.