The Bridge into 2021: Fear to Freedom Part 1

The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear. ~ Aung San Suu Kyi

 

We have just crossed a momentous spiritual and energetic bridge into a new era. So many were inspired to write about the meet-up of Jupiter and Saturn in Aquarius at the December Solstice and the dawn of the Age of Aquarius. Are you feeling the shift?

 

With all the new energies coming in, it may not feel that we have “landed” yet. Do you feel like you are suspended in between the old and the new? Many are sharing a feeling of being in between the worlds, in a liminal space of possibilities and potentials. That seems right given the epic nature of what is shifting and that Uranus, one of the planets in charge of Aquarius, is retrograde until January 14th. (See my January Key Astro Dates for more important markers.)

 

We are still bridging the old paradigm and choosing at the deepest level what to bring forward with us into a future that is beyond our imagination. We are creating the template for our life for the next 2100 years and beyond.

 

The Sun is still shining its light in Capricorn, illuminating the skeleton of what destroyed or restructured in 2020. The more we can allow the light of awareness into these raw places and honor the cathartic letting go that was asked of us, the better prepared we are to breathe life into and birth a new vision.

 

Venus will join the Sun in Capricorn on January 8th and bring some sweetness and healing to what has been unearthed, exposed, pruned. The more we open to what we learned through constraints and limitations and the natural maturation of our perspective, the more access we will gain the freedom of our inner knowing, unhindered by external events.

 

The heart of this transition into Aquarius is the release of the dominator consciousness and its bitter legacy that permeates our oldest stories on this planet. The planets and all their meetings in Capricorn emphasized this shadow aspect of fear and control. The dynamic of “power over'' has ruled through the use of force, control, and manipulation. Dominator consciousness works through creating fear and lack and preying upon our most fundamental need for connection, nurturing relationships, and a sense of belonging.

 

I see the greatest gift of 2020 being the solution to dominator culture found in exalted Capricorn - the return to grandmother wisdom at the center of our culture-making. How do we re-envision the many examples of an elder, female council, who mostly nurtured their unique purpose and relations, but held the power to put an end to any life-threatening ideas that may be hatched in the larger community?

 

The promise of the Age of Aquarius is for humans of heart to re-dream the world through realizing our inherent power, genius and sovereignty. We have the ability to create a culture based on care, reverence for nature and protection of our most vulnerable members.

 

Once we collectively recognize that we have the authority and don’t need anyone’s permission to begin, something entirely new and fresh will begin to happen on the planet. A different kind of unprecedented change. The power of groups with a shared vision working effectively together cannot be emphasized enough as key to what comes next.

 

2021 brings us into clashes opposing forces - the old and the new paradigms. We will be asked to choose many times. There will also be confusion about who in our society represents the forces of liberation and progress, as well as what needs to be purged from our current organization of society to heal and re-dream our reality. Some will want to “throw the baby out with the bathwater” and destroy all the institutions that brought us to this pinnacle of human accomplishment.

 

The US will begin a “dark night of the soul” period in regards to the violence of the origins of this country. The US represents an experiment in freedom that is unique to the modern world. The future of America affects the global quest for greater liberty and liberation. Some will rise to honor the positive aspects of the US while acknowledging and seeking to heal the dominator roots that created opportunity for some through exploitation of others.

 

This reconciliation will necessarily include the perspectives of the original people of the Americas, ancestors of the slaves from Africa, immigrants, women, and children. In order for the US to go forward into a rebirth, there must be repair for the great harm done in its formation. And repair is possible.

 

We are moving from multi-tiered levels of the “Industrial Revolution” deeper into the “Digital Revolution”. The Industrialization has ushered in this time of extreme convenience and possibility and yet has been brutal on our human rights and destructive of our human spirit. It is at its core a slavery system. The mindset of mechanization views all matter, including living beings, as objects to be owned and used. This is incongruent with our human evolution.

 

Because we are aligning with great evolutionary forces at this time, much of the old structures will fall away. Many of these exploitative beliefs made their way into our modern reality with the embrace of globalism and continued oppression of the many to serve the few. The collective is questioning the dominator framework and many are changing direction and choosing evolution. There may be chaos and discord as the old crumbles.

 

As we move more fully into the Digital Age, we face the task of aligning technology to support the realization of our human genius...or allowing it to perpetuate more sophisticated controls over our lives that hinder our freedom and creative expression. We choose. 2020 showed us the gaps between more access to technology to accomplish our tasks and the cost of isolation on our basic human needs. Children and teens in particular are suffering from the shift from human connection to digital connection.

 

And this leads to why Venus and the energy of Solar Feminine are key to the Age of Aquarius (next level of the Digital Age.) Venus represents our heart and our ability to give and receive love and connect emotionally and sensually. This is both our ability to understand and share our own emotions, needs as well as how to attune to another’s need to create a win/win situation. Healthy and supportive relationships open the way for the future of our dreams.

 

Venus is also the yummy parts of life - pleasure, creative and erotic expression and the other gifts of being in a body. It is through the body that we can transmute the history of trauma and fear into greater freedom and agency. If we keep abandoning physical form for virtual reality, we lose that capacity. Do we really want to see the next level of a Digital/Information Age without Heart? I’m going to bet that most of us do not. We can choose to put technology in service to a blossoming of human potential.

 

I’ve written a lot about this current Venus cycle but I will summarize below and then into the main dynamics of 2021. Venus is almost halfway through her 19-month cycle that began on June 3rd, 2020. She is shining as Morning Star for one more month with an important final Gate in Capricorn with the Moon on 1/11 before she disappears into the Underworld on 2/1.

 

I encourage you to get up before dawn and see her while you can. 1/11 is a beautiful day for ceremonies and amplification of your heart intentions and deepest longings for 2021.

 

At the beginning of each Venus cycle, she unites with the Sun and new seeds planted deep in our hearts. Her cycle mirrors our Heroine’s Journey into greater authenticity and power. We are in a time where the call is to re-dream the world through awakening to our direct connection with Source within our bodies.

 

Our own heart wisdom is our greatest teaching going forward. From this connection, we begin to manifest in new and powerful ways from our heart energy. The magic comes from wedding pure feelings with the imaginal, not only from linear thinking and left-brained strategies. See my “Venus in Gemini Heart Instructions” for more on the codes of this cycle (in comments on Facebook.)

 

During her Morning Star phase, we received our first level of training in how to meet intensity with greater openness, neutrality, and possibility. We will deepen our training when she drops into the Underworld and attains mastery as she rides through her Evening Star Phase from May until the end of the year.

 

In 2021 the biggest astrological themes come from the tension between the established and the innovative, the old guard and the new guardians, a culture based on fear and control and one based on care and equality. The good news is that the consciousness of Capricorn, which worked us to the bone so that we could see the underlying power structures of our current reality, will take a back seat this year, as Aquarius comes to the fore.

 

Images: Artists unknown. Please share if you do.