"Americans can always be counted on to do the right
thing... after they have exhausted all other possibilities."
Sir Winston Churchill

THE DESIGN SYSTEM is the first Aquarian system. As such, it can be experienced as being ahead of its time, since we are struggling to exit the Piscean age intact. But for anyone who is compelled to engage in the shift of consciousness in these turbulent times, the Design system is an essential tool. If we look back through "his"-tory at the 2300 years of the Piscean Age, there are some strange tales to relate in terms of human behaviors. We have recorded dark ages, very dark ages, and occasional glimmers of light, but very few humans have been exposed to lifetimes of joy and delight. Rather, lifetimes of servitude, drudgery, war, religious persecutions, flights for freedom, and early and often painful death have been the norm. The Piscean Age has witnessed massive migrations of people from one side of the world to the other, the comings and goings of many empires, the rise and fall of many religions, and still humanity keeps striving to find meaning and purpose to life.

The Piscean Age has been a time of faith and belief systems. Trust in a king or a priest, a landlord or a sorcerer, a chieftain or a Spiritual Master or Teacher has been the measure of those times. But now, at the entry to the Aquarian Age, this measure no longer works. The age of despots, dictators, messiahs and charlatans (in the form of popes, imams, and shankaracharyas), is passing. If we are to live consciously in human form we are going to have to take on consciousness and responsibility for our own lives and environments. We are not apart from Existence, but rather, we are the form and substance of Existence herself.

Democracy is a great idea that had its implementation at the commencement of the Piscean Age, but it must give way to Meritocracy, in which people who are ably trained and qualified handle government, instead of those who bribe and bully their way into controlling others, often through an unrecognized sense of their own inferiority. Capitalism is a great booster to demonstrate concepts of abundance, but the world will never be truly abundant until all its citizens can be abundant... something that is completely within the bounds of possibility without anyone having to go through the dehumanizing horrors of facism or communism.

War demonstrates an unwillingness or inability to apply diplomacy, as well as a refusal to acknowledge our divine nature. Some past wars can be blamed on misunderstandings stemming from poor communications, but in these times, this is no longer an excuse. War does not need to be visited on anyone, ever, under any circumstance! Weapons have followed us from caveman times, when they were first used to provide food and later applied to win territory, but even if they have become marvelously efficient, they are no longer worthy accoutrements of the Aquarian Age, except as relics to put in museums to remind us of a time when man was a brute, struggling for physical survival. The Aquarian Age will see us moving our energies from destruction to creativity, because it is now our consciousness and responsibility to be attuned to life as planetary Beings.

In these times of wonder, at the turning of the tide, inevitably there are those who are threatened by a change they cannot control. And so, there is a resurgence in "religious" extremists who talk and act on their "faith" and trust in one "good" book or another to instruct their ever-faltering footsteps. We have a resurgence of those who seek to take back recently fallen empires and attempt to dupe people who have already had a taste of greater freedoms. Additionally, there is a resurgence of those who are reluctant to recognize and encourage dramatic advances in understandings that improve human life through science and exploration.

Fortunately, Existence has her own plans and evolution. This is a time to rejoice. It is a time that all conscious people have awaited through countless lifetimes, to be witness to our reacquainting ourselves with the great mysteries of consciousness. The Aquarian Age heralds the movement away from fear and survival towards spirited abundance. In this article, we look at some of the changes of these remarkable times through the Design Wheel and the movements of the messengers, the planets, of our Solar system for the years ahead.

The Planets and other heavenly bodies
In their continuing orbits around us, the planets chronicle our lives as an active part of the Universe. The Moon, our local satellite and mirror of the Sun's and our own light, orbits around us every month reminding us of how light is reflected, how the balance between consciousness and unconsciousness is played out. The Moon deeply affects all forms of consciousness, from the Earth's tides, to the seasons of plants to the fertility and creativity of humans.

The Sun, the center of our little Universe, provides the warmth and brightness by which we live our lives on a daily basis. The Sun's energy has been the life-force presence of this planet from times before humans ever appeared here on Earth.

Mercury orbits the Sun on average every 88 days and provides an undercurrent, though often unrecognized, fixed timing for most of our activities. Historically and symbolically, Mercury has been associated with our communications, travel and connection to the world around us. We are all aware of times in which Mercury has a period of "retrograde" motion, a time when it appears to be traveling "backwards" from its normal orbit when viewed from Earth, and many of our plans appear to go through a period of rearrangement and disruption unless they are thoroughly well organized. The retrograde Mercury "disruptions" can be major or minor, depending on our attachment to outcomes in our lives. Mercury retrogrades happen approximately three times in a year for about three weeks at a time and give us the opportunity to realign ourselves within the overall framework of our lives.

Upcoming periods of Mercury Retrogrades are from Nov. 30 through December 19, 2004; March 19 through April 12, 2005; July 22 through August 15, 2005; November 13 through December 3, 2005; March 2, through 25, 2006, etc. Mercury “stillpoints,” which are those times when there is a transition between Mercury’s apparent “forward” or “backward” motion are times that permit substantial personal realizations in our lives.

The Personal Planets
Venus is the nearest of our “personal” planets, being a planet that has close accord with our relationships and who and what we draw to us in order to fulfill our need to relate and find beauty, consensus and value. Venus symbolizes our receptive, feminine, yin-aligned nature. We associate Venus with beauty and the exploration of our sensibilities towards the importance of beauteousness, comfort and peace in every aspect of our lives.

Venus orbits our Earth once in every year and appears to “swing” in an arc to either side of the Sun so that it can be our “morning” or “evening” star at various times of the year. In August of 2004, it eclipsed the Sun, when viewed from Earth, an event that happens in pairs every century. Historically, Venus has been recorded to have eclipsed the Sun in 1631 & 1639, 1761 & 1769, 1874 & 1883. The paired eclipse to the 2004 eclipse will happen on June 6, 2012. Thereafter, the next eclipse pair will happen on December 11, 2117 and December 8, 2125.

The recent Venus eclipse has heightened our senses towards who and what is important to us in our lives. Between now and 2012, many “established” values will shift. We are likely to see a growing dissatisfaction within ourselves around the concept that war and violence has any place in our world. Increasingly, our abilities to communicate globally and to energize diplomacy will become important to help resolve conflict and bring noticeable improvement in many areas of our lives. The presence of powerful and assured women, who are clear in their life-giving abilities and nurture/nature will become more and more obvious in the world... like the winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, Wangari Maathai, for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.

Venus also has “retrograde” periods (the last one was May 17 through June 29, 2004 the next one is from December 24, 2005 through February 3, 2006). These are times in which we get to evaluate the quality of our relating and ongoing relationships. Venus’ “stillpoints” bring maximum realization of important themes in our relationships and creative pursuits.

Mars orbits elliptically around us once every 1.88 years, giving adjustments to the ways in which we are active in our lives. Symbolically, Mars relates to our ego-driven nature, our strength, courage, physical ability, outpouring creativity, endurance, sexuality and also, in its lower form, our intolerant, violent, destructive and anger-driven tendencies. Mars’s energy is often perceived as the “opposite” to the Venusian way of drawing people and things to us to expand our reality. Mars is more likely to deliberately go out and make something happen, without regard for any resulting fallout. Inevitably, Mars is characterized by the male energy that has dominated the world to create “his”-tory for the past ages and the suppression of “her”-story.

In 2005, Mars sweeps through the part of the sky associated with dramatic personal transformation leading towards March 23, 2005, (around the March equinox), when a complete overhaul of our objectives will take place as Mars enters Gate 41 and our imaginations are spurred to anticipate new dreams and possibilities. Many fixed concepts concerning our regular activities are going to be rearranged at this time. Towards the end of 2005, from October 2 until December 10, Mars makes a retrograde motion, giving us the opportunity to undo and re-qualify many things that may have appeared to become fixed in our lives. It is a time to acknowledge lessons learned through our past actions and “mend bridges” and repair previous hasty actions so that we can open the potentials for a more civilized approach within our world.

The Interpersonal planets
Jupiter and Saturn are the two interpersonal planets that link us to society’s needs and requirements. Jupiter is almost big enough to be a star, and as such plays an extremely important part in our growth and sustainment on Earth. Presently, Jupiter is transiting through Gate 18, which is allowing us an opportunity to check into the real authorities in our lives. As children, our parents, guardians, and teachers provide the authority we expect to guide us rightly, but as some children quickly find out, they have a better comprehension of how to run their lives than their elders! As we mature, particularly at the entry to the Aquarian Age, it is essential that we take charge and responsibility within our own lives, trust our own nature and stop, completely, giving our power and authority away to others!

From now through December we are concerning ourselves, through Jupiter’s influence, to feel authoritative in our lives (Gate 18), to explore our level of life-mastery in a changing world (Gate 48), and look forward to hopefully see ourselves in a secure and worthwhile future (Gate 57)... as we do every 12 years, because Jupiter has a 12-year rotation around our planet.

On February 2, 2005, Jupiter goes retrograde, giving us the chance to reexamine the whole time frame since November, 5 2004 to honestly review what we have deemed important to ourselves in these times. Do we stand in our own authority or are we paying lip-service to someone else’s previous belief systems? Can we honestly call ourselves masters of our own lives, or are we constantly in service to “the man,” whoever that might be?! Do we feel comfortable as we look to the future, or is it time to allow some major changes?

On June 5, 2005, Jupiter once more goes direct allowing us to generously set the record right on what we have just been reexamining. Through early September 2005 we can look directly into a different future than the one we imagine for ourselves at this time! From September 13, 2005, we will experience rapid changes in our world transformation process, aligning us all with an unspoken accord that, together, we can endorse substantial world-community, life-serving values (Gate 50, from October 9 through November 4, 2005), stand firm for what we deem as essential and dignifying qualities in life (Gate 28, from November 5 through December 1, 2005), and recognize and manage the patterns of our world (Gate 44, from December 2 through December 31, 2005), ready for... our movement, in accord with Jupiter’s great benefic energy, on January 1, 2006, to enter into the realm of new and expansive levels of creativity (Gate 1).

Saturn is accorded the need to have self-discipline in our attitudes of “how things work” in the temporal world. When we are in accord within ourselves, master of our own nature, we cannot be shaken by the events of our world, and, in fact, can find ourselves growing substantially through all challenges because of our self-discipline. Saturn demonstrates how to relate to the patterns that are established in the world and highlights our attitudes, positive or negative, to the patterns. It can bring a certain seriousness that is transcended by taking responsibility for fulfilling what is needful in one’s life and then remembering to celebrate life in all its forms.

Saturn takes about 29 years to revolve around us, returning to the exact placement of its first appearance in our lives at age 29. A Saturn “return” brings the consequence of standing in one’s own right in one’s life, and taking full responsibility for oneself and those who are drawn close to us. It is one of the maturing moments in life that everyone, on reflection from later years, will recognize to have transpired for them. A second Saturn return takes place at around age 58, bringing a whole new understanding to one’s sense of responsibility in the world.

Presently, Saturn has been transiting Gate 56, stimulating us to tell and engage ourselves in empathizing with other people’s stories and beliefs, and also causing us to consider and make “essential” travels to find deeper connection with others of like minds and beliefs. On November 8, 2004, Saturn goes retrograde, transiting back through much of what we have perceived as clear, fixed and arranged, even “cast in stone” since August 2004. The time Saturn revisits the point in the sky where it turned retrograde on November 8, 2004 will be on June 28, 2005, and anything that has not had a basis of truth in the preceding six months will become problematic. Of course, we live in an age of “spin-doctors” who are paid to call black white, but Saturn’s energy seeks out and exposes the truth if we do not take our responsibilities correctly.

July 2005 is a great month to travel to inspiring and dreamed-about destinations, (provided travel plans are clear before Mercury’s retrograde commencing on July 23.) It is a great month for storytelling, family and religious gatherings as Saturn transits through Gate 56.
August 2005 opens with Saturn entering Gate 31, the Gate of leadership and influence in the world. On September 17, 2005, Saturn enters Gate 33, implying that there comes a time for major reconsideration on what is implied as “right” leadership in current times. Saturn’s arrival in Gate 33 might herald a time for reduction and removal of troops from war zones unless the presence of those troops is in the best interests of the local population and the world at large. On October 23, 2005, when Saturn transits Gate 33 line 4, there is an opening that continues through December 23 in which many people will be reacquainted with past life memories and people, in various guises, from their past. It is a time to reattune with our essential journey... we have been here forever, let’s move on into the light!

The Outer, Transpersonal, Generational Planets
Uranus orbits elliptically around us every 84+ years and even though it is far from us, it is over 14 times more massive than the Earth. If you live to be over 84, you will experience a Uranus “return,” but mostly, we are offered the experience of a Uranus midpoint at between the age of 38 and 44 years old. For anyone who has been watching their life, the Uranus midpoint, when Uranus is exactly opposite to where it was in the sky at the time of our birth, is a significant event because it marks a shift in our personal destiny, typically called the mid-life crisis, into whole new impressions and expressions of ourself and our life. We discover our unique individuality and begin to live a more authentic life.

Uranus is the planet associated with Aquarius, and thus, as we enter the Aquarian Age, the planet Uranus has more and more bearing in our life. Uranus brings the quality of the unexpected, the sudden awakening, the unusual and the flash of insight that shatters past conceptions. Uranian energy synthesizes and invents the unimaginable!

For the latter part of 2003 and most of 2004, Uranus has been transiting through Gate 55, called “Abundance” in the IChing, the Gate associated with our Spirit nature contained in human form. It must be remarked that, in the past couple of years, the level of awakening into the concepts, technical marvels and sheer potentials of the 21st century has been profound. There has been a huge resurgence in people actively reexamining their spiritual nature. Relating of past life experiences, new and dramatically effective healing techniques, meditation, psychic and other phenomena have all become commonplace in the Western world. Humanity is awakening!

Throughout 2005, Uranus transits backwards and forwards through Gate 37, the Gate associated with Family, Friendship and Community at large. If indeed we have aligned ourselves over the past couple of years with our Spirit nature, then we will find ourselves gradually reaching out into the world to make firm contact as a world family. The last time this happened was at the beginning of the “roaring (19)20’s,” when the clear intention was that the horrors of “the Great War” would never be reenacted.

Family and Friendship, as represented by Gate 37, revolves around a clear commitment that all members of the family participate and take full responsibility for their part in any arrangement. The concept of family only works when everyone fulfills their part in any interaction. Uranus’ presence in the 37 will awaken a whole new way in which the concept of family works and interacts together. Many irrelevant fixtures of family life will evaporate and many new living and interrelating possibilities will come to be. Some parents might even come to realize that their children are wiser Beings than themselves!

Madame, or Mr. Neptune, depending on how clear and confident one feels, takes all of 165 years to make a turn around our Earth and causes us constantly to reexamine things we have a tendency to take for granted in our lives. With Neptune’s presence in our life, nothing is quite as it appears to be. At any time Neptune can accentuate amazing acts of creativity, prophecy, glamour and emotional/religious ecstasy, or, draw us into escapism, delusion, hypochondria, disintegration and chaos.

Potentially, Neptune represents the deeper feminine, mystical, spiritual, inspirational part of our makeup that can be enhanced through film (tv) and music, two expressions that can show us previously unrealized parts of our nature. Potentially, Neptune can also take us, typically through the use of drugs, both pharmaceutical and un-prescribed, out of our physical bodies into realms of imagination, fantasy and illusion. Many shamans, who for thousands of years have opened gateways into other realms, have relied on drugs to fuel their Neptunian abilities. Neptune can point us indirectly towards what can be experienced in a fully realized state. It can also take us away from ourselves into a backwater of delusion and escapism.

Presently, Neptune is concluding a transit through Gate 19, called “Approach” in the IChing, the Gate associated with our interrelatedness and our reaching out to feel as though we really belong here, on Earth, in life, and who belongs with us as a regular part of our life. Many of us may have realized some disappearing relationships and friendships over the past few years as we have opened ourselves up for new connections. The world moves along and we have many meetings and new relationships to make, but it will seem strange, on retrospect, when we wonder where those seemingly lifelong friends have gone... The Gate 19 is also associated with our recommitment to the mystical path, and Neptune has been quietly bringing our attention towards where we are taking ourselves spiritually and who might be traveling in a similar journey with us.

During the past year, Neptune has also been transiting backwards and forwards in Gate 13, the Gate of Fellowship with Mankind. In 2005, Neptune continues to move slowly backwards and forwards through Gate 13, gradually refining our own life experiences and beliefs through relating to other people’s points of view. For anyone who has shown, for example, complete disinterest in a religion other than their own, they might suddenly start to draw parallels and be able to bridge previous bigotry and misconceptions.

Pluto’s influence has the ability to bring us to our knees if we are not careful, and even if we are careful sometimes. It all depends on our level of attachment to people, things and expectations in our lives! It is the planet of transformation, death and rebirth, that orbits, eccentrically around us every 248 years, weaving in and out of Neptune’s orbit. Interestingly, Pluto was inside the orbit of Neptune, between January of 1979 until February of 1999. Another interesting feature of Pluto is that it orbits its own moon, in exact synchronicity, so that the same face of Pluto is opposite the same face of Charon, Pluto’s moon, at all times, orbiting the same center of mass. Charon and Pluto are almost the same size, and it is postulated that they even share the same atmosphere. What leaves the immediate atmosphere of Pluto, becomes (is reborn as) a part of the atmosphere of Charon, and vice versa.,, Mythologically, Charon was the boatman who took departing souls from the side of life to the side of death.

For the past two years, Pluto has been transiting backwards and forwards through Gate 26, the Gate associated with accumulation. Accumulation can relate to material items and also to lessons learned throughout the past. On December 27, 2004, Pluto transits forwards into Gate 11, the Gate associated with Ideas, Teaching and Peace. We shall soon be confronted with the question of whether those things we have apparently accumulated in our lives in the past few years have any lasting value to us and our current needs. We shall also be drawn to examine whether Peace is more satisfactory to our nature than war. We shall also have a penetrating look into the whole aspect of life and thereby health and healing and the systems that sustain them. We shall also have cause to reexamine what is commonly called the educational “system” and see what needs to happen to serve its students.

From July 5 through October 28, 2005, Pluto reenters Gate 26 during a retrograde cycle giving us all a last evaluation, in our lifetime, of the lessons learned in the past 248 years of human trials and endeavor. Are we evolving yet?

In conclusion
Life is a play, a jolly Leela, and within it all, we have the great privilege to participate and play for all we are worth, or we can sit back and pretend to ignore the great gift we have. Nothing is to be taken for granted in this world, because, as we all know, life is too short to settle for cheap champagne!

Let us all, in these precious times, make a clear affirmation to give life our best, to give our friends, family and fellow travelers our love and respect, and find, and continue to find, the delight that we sometimes try to avoid.