Future of Religion

 

June 3, 2005

 

http://cainer.com/ericfrancis/jun3.html

 

Hi Eric:

 

I am a subscriber and resonate with your insights. I am wondering what shows up astrologically about the future of religion. It seems like we are in the Dark Ages again where religion is being used to hide the Truth, create more wars and basically separate people, all in the name of GOD. Or maybe the light is revealing the darkness. What direction do you think it's headed? Thank you!

 

Sincerely

 

Gail

 

 

Dear Gail,

 

Speaking of prediction, astrologers did see this one coming. I remember in about 94-95, when I was just getting started in astrology, there was a lot of discussion of the meaning of Pluto in Sagittarius, a transit which was, at the time, just beginning. Pluto is about intense obsessions, and the evolution of the soul; Sagittarius is about religious ideals, belief systems, and global situations. It was pretty much a no brainer that we were going to get a lot of intense action where all these themes come together.

 

Astrologers, among other things, noted that we were sure to be having issues with various shapes and shades of fundamentalism. A little more than a decade later, we are in the throes of fundamentalist Christianity, Islam, and 'conservatism', which does not exactly seem to be serving Spirit, or conserving very much of anything.

 

We saw the peak of this, or one peak, when Saturn in Gemini opposed Pluto in Sagittarius in 2001, and the World Trade Center happened. That opened the door to even more fundamentalist madness; a kind off apocalyptic-esque thing happened, and it was used as an excuse for a lot of fear to be spread; and we can see clearly that the many fear-based reactions to that event have only spread and perpetuated more fear and more fundamentalism, which is often based on fear.

 

There are, however, other things we can observe from this era. For example, Melanie Reinhart described the whole Pluto in Sagittarius era as one where we are "breaking the taboo on God" -- that is, a time when we can express our unique religious ideals and our true faith, more or less free from persecution. This aspect of Pluto in Sagittarius has, of course, fallen into the shadow of the more daunting fundamentalist movements.

 

Then there is the whole concept of globalization, which includes a united Europe (current problems notwithstanding), various free trade agreements such as NAFTA kicking in and causing both people and corporations all kind of problems, and also a huge mix of international cultures leading to much mixing of the waters, racially, tribally, socially and internationally. Then when Chiron made its once per 60-year conjunction to Pluto in late 1999, we had the dawn of the anti-globalization movement. It was a real moment in activist history, as people converged from all over the planet to resist the World Trade Organization. This movement has a rather religious fervor, with all the underground, clandestine but peaceful militancy you would hope could be squeezed from the higher vibrations of Pluto.

 

However -- you ask about the future of religion. And based on the movement of Pluto, just looking ahead about two years, that future sure looks interesting. I speak mainly of Pluto reaching the Galactic Core. I have not done a Galactic Core rant lately (poke around the archives of this column and you'll find a few) but the upshot is this. Our Sun is part of the Milky Way Galaxy, which is an island in space consisting of a few hundred billion stars. Those stars are concentrated in a disk and at the core of the disk is a bulge of stars and that bulge, consisting of most of the weight of the galaxy, is located at 27 degrees of Sagittarius.

 

And Pluto is going to cross over this degree all through 2007, which represents a second huge peak of the Pluto in Sagittarius era. It will be difficult for the forces of darkness to make as much headway as they seem to have made in the past few years. There is a kind of purification process; you might say a cosmic tollgate for anyone who has been a purveyor of either fundamentalist religion, or who has supported the evolutionary impulse of the soul. There is a kind of super-global moment, so global that it becomes galactic/universal.

 

It is one of the huge turning points along the way to 2012.

 

Also note that before long, in fact, beginning now, Pisces plays a major part in the game:

 

* Several major outer planets will be passing through Pisces -- currently Uranus, and quite soon, Neptune, and Chiron, so there will definitely be changes and a new start.

 

* We might speculate that as this develops and the melting power of Pisces takes hold, it will become more difficult for male-based, rules-based, 'desert' religions, featuring a judgmental, punishing god from above, to ignore the many changes in our world. As women gradually achieve equality, so too will our religions begin to reflect this change in our fundamental beliefs.

 

* So much energy in Pisces is a commentary on the 'end of days' that we are now moving through. While Bible-based religions speak of this end-time situation, actually they offer no concrete evidence of why this is about now. However, the Mayans were onto this situation thousands of years ago. Here's an article from Bridge to the Core.