I’ve been haunted by 4:44 and 44 synchronicity since last spring.  In the fall, I wrote about how 44th birthdays approach for the people born during the rare era-defining Sixties Grand Opposition between Saturn/Chiron in Pisces and Uranus/Pluto in Virgo.  That alignment peaked in 1965 and 1966, so those birthdays are happening now.  This year marks the start of them, not to mention the start of the 44th presidency and 111th congress in the U.S.  All while slow-moving Uranus and Saturn have reversed their 1960’s positions and are now opposing each other again from opposite signs.  They came into perfect opposition on Election Day – a coincidence to say the least.   This fall, Pluto will join the dance to form a potent T-Square.  Turbulence now, much more ahead.

Previously, I wrote that the 44 and the 111 mark the doorway to a period of great change.  I definitely don’t mean that President Obama and the 111th Congress are agents of the change.  Instead, I think that the 44 and the 111 may be coordinates in time and space. 

I recently came across a suggestive item to add to the 44/111 synchronicity collection.  I’ve been watching seismic activity around volcanoes since the Tonga 7.9 earthquake and volcanic eruption.  I was looking into a minor earthquake around Yellowstone when I realized – the Yellowstone caldera is located roughly at 44°N 111°W.  

To have one of the world’s largest supervolcanoes sitting so close to those precise coordinates seems a bit portentous right about now.  But the last thing we need is to get sucked into fearful doomsday thinking.  We are living in a hot spot in history.  Bubbling under the surface is the potential for profound transformation, as well as profound destruction.  What we do matters.  Change does not have to be catastrophe.

Speaking of avoiding catastrophe, a prominent 44 turns up in the new Lexus RX commercial “Intersection.”  A car and an 18-wheeler come to the point of head on collision at a dark intersection, but time screeches to a halt just before impact.  Four guardian figures emerge from the darkness and pull the car and the truck backward through time.   One of the guardians turns the car driver’s head just enough so that he’ll see what’s approaching at the intersection.  A 44 appears on his windshield while the narrator speaks of “illuminat[ing] places you couldn’t see before.”  Time resumes forward motion and the driver swerves in time to avoid the truck and proceed safely on his way.

Unlike the Lexus driver, we will NOT be able to proceed on course after a brush with calamity.  Collectively, our present course IS disastrous — not just right now but going back several hundred years leading up to this point.  It will only get worse.  No swerving will get it safely back on track.  No illuminations or shining saviors will redeem it.  Our salvation will come from letting it go and making a new way founded on honest right relations — with ourselves, with each other, with other species, with the planet. 

Namaste

We had another small earthquake here in Morris County, New Jersey — the second this month.  First a 3.0 earthquake on Imbolc, centered within a mile of my home.  Then a 2.4 earthquake on Valentine’s Day a few miles away.  Of course, these are no great shakes as far as earthquakes around the globe go, but they are unusual here.  I’ve lived in New Jersey all my life and never experienced one before.

According to the USGS, this latest quake occurred at 22:22:22 UTC.   There they are again – those numbers with repeating digits.  They speak a language to those who will listen.  Granted, the actual words are muffled by the veil.  All I can make out is a murmur.  Nevertheless, they say pay attention. 

Indeed, the timing of both earthquakes is suggestive.  Imbolc comes from the old Irish i mbolg  meaning ‘in the belly.’  Now overrun by groundhogs, the day still represents the hopeful quickening of spring within the womb of winter.   

Obviously Valentine’s Day is associated with the heart, but long before the holiday was named for a Christian saint (any one of three), it was the ancient Roman purification/fertility festival Lupercalia.  After sacrificing a goat and a dog, being smeared with blood and then wiped clean with milk, two young men ran around Rome playfully lashing people along the way with strips of hide from the sacrificed goat.  Women came forward and lined up hoping to be struck, for the light lashing was supposed to impart fertility and an easy delivery.

And I think that’s what we should hope for now – an easy delivery.  The old order is crumbling and a new world needs to be born.  Will we come forward and be constructive midwives to this birth, or will we cling to structures that are on a downward spiral?  We can still choose now, but at some point down the road, there may be no choice.

I have to admit that I am fascinated by the fact that in January, the 111th Congress and the 44th President will take office in the U.S.  Numbers with repeating digits always grab my attention.  For me, 111 has the same kind of energy as 11:11.  As I wrote last time, eleven-elevens are the glow of lucidity poking through the dream fabric and therefore the number of awakening.  Forty-four is the number of a lamb, blood and “He Redeems.”  Thus I associate 44 and 4:44 with transfiguration.  I’ve been running into 44/4:44 a lot since the spring.  Together, these numbers seem to be pillars marking the entrance to a period of great change.  They seem to be vibrating with the call of destiny.

Meanwhile, 44th birthdays approach for the people who were born during the peak years of what astrologer Eric Francis described as the rare “Sixties grand opposition.”  This was the conjunction between Uranus and Pluto in Virgo, with Saturn and then undiscovered Chiron opposing from Pisces.  Peak years were 1965 and 1966, but Francis says the ripples of influence span from 1959 to 1973. 

In his three-part essay “Born in the Sixties,” Francis defines the powerful outer planet energies brought to a head in that grand opposition – they were the very energies firing the social and political movements of the time.  So the grand opposition had an obvious immediate effect in shaping that turbulent era, but it also shaped the natal charts of those born during it, mainly vanguard Gen-Xers.

So far, this latter effect has been mostly latent, I think, because many natives are having trouble with lower octave expressions of the potent energies involved.  Waylaid by FEAR (Saturn) and shadow projection (Pluto), distracted by our woundedness (Chiron) and technological toys (Uranus), this generation has yet to come into its own.  But maybe turning 44 in this period, with its new alignments, will be a turning point.

Meanwhile, what goes around comes around in the grand dance.  Uranus (freedom, revolution, sudden change) and Saturn (limits, structure, inertia) are opposing each other again, but this time their locations are reversed on the Virgo-Pisces axis.  And now Pluto (transformation) enters Capricorn (social structures) for a new era-defining transit.  

I am no expert, but these patterns are coming together in a way that seems portentous.  The stage is set.  The players are taking their positions.  Our social, political and economic structures are poised for a period of profound transformation.  Some will say hold onto your hats and fasten your seatbelts.  I am in the other camp – the one that is trying to let go of the shore.

Namaste

P.S. – Too bad USA cancelled The 4,400.

P.P.S. – Still one off.

The American people chose an integrated world view over a racist, jingoist “Country First” world view.  The world feels lighter.

I am way left of Obama and the Democrats. In my view, the change he represents is more symbolic than actual. To be precise, I think we need bigger, more fundamental change than he can or will bring. He is beholden to Wall Street and the corporate elite like any other bourgeois politician. Nevertheless, right now I am elated that Americans who participate in electoral politics chose this man to be their president — a man who in his person represents the integration of several cultural oppositions.

I think many of us are feeling better about each other this week.