Evolution: Homo Sapiens Morphs from Homo Asinine to Homo Improvement

Whadda ya say we all lighten up a little on the Big Change Transits? [1]

I’ve had so much piled on me—husband’s stroke (see Shocking), a dear friend dying, and a variety of personal challenges that could make my head spin. Yet I’m still putting one foot and chuckle in front of the other. I hope I’m a trendsetter. Do you think this is why Jupiter joined Uranus in the opposition to Saturn? To send us lightning bolts of laughter while problems as big elephants are standing on one or both of our feet?

I admit; I told someone recently that I was going to go back to bed, pull the covers over my head, and not come out until 2013, assuming there’s still an Earth. After a good night’s sleep, rapid evolution doesn’t seem quite so awful. Actually, it’s exhilarating.

Scuba Gear and Lemonade for PUNCs

For years, I’ve written that the discovery of Chiron in 1977 heralded a new species. I call our new evolutionary line homo improvement. I don’t think anyone would argue that we could use a new and improved human race, considering the havoc wreaked by the people in the really “off”-shoot species, homo asinine. You know, the Missing Their Link. The folks who destroy their home, wage bloody wars in the name of the divine, and collapse an entire global economic system out of personal greed. The George W. Bush Administration was just a preview of what we’d have in store if we keep teaching our kids miscreationism. No more kid stuff! God/dess is asking us to grow up, and it’s about time.

Chiron is the bridge to the outer planets, spanning the turf from Saturn (the old way of doing things) to Uranus (the new and progressive). Thanks to the healing teachings of Chiron, we can get from Here to There when it comes to great change without having to deep-sea dive in the Ocean of Chaos without scuba gear. I know, it still feels like we’re 20,000 leagues under the sea in thick debris with no visibility, but:

Here’s where two of Chiron’s most appealing teachings help: humor heals and you can make lemons out of lemonade.

Some of us have lived our entire incarnation at the lemonade stand. We are what I call outerplanetary (extraordinary) people, those with the outer planets prominent in our charts. [2] I also call us PUNCs for Plutonian, Uranian, Neptunian, and Chironic. In the near future, I will be revising and updating my OPP (OuterPlanetaryPeople) series [3] that appeared in Welcome to Planet Earth magazine in the ‘90s to give us PUNCs more scuba gear for plunging the depths of change. We are the people who live on the leading edge of evolution who need it the most in the current universal shake-up! Pack your sense of humor in a watertight back.

Something to think about: Those heroes Chiron mentored did extraordinary things. These extraordinary times call for the development of inner heroism. When I think of Chiron’s students, the three that pop to mind first are Jason, Hercules, and Asclepius. Jason went on an epic quest for the Golden Fleece; Hercules had legendary strength; and Asclepius grew up to become the Father of Medicine. To me, this implies:

Chiron helps us in the quest for hidden gold in our lives, in finding our inner strength, and in developing our healer within. All the resources are inside us and the journey is deep into ourselves.

Something I’ve noticed about the “thick” energy and impact on my most personal planets by the Cardinal T-Square Plus is the fact that there is so much going on; I can only deal with one challenge at a time. I’m learning to live in the Now, that virtue spiritual teachers tout. I have no time to worry about what’s next, except for a vague peripheral awareness that there’s a lot more on my plate. I need to keep up my strength, to focus it in present time while keeping some in reserve for what comes next. The urgent nature of today’s problems brings to mind my definition of hero:

A hero is someone who acts unselfishly from his or her Higher Self in urgent circumstances.

When life is coming at you hot ‘n’ heavy, it’s trusting your inner wisdom that gets you through the day. These are times to gather our wits, including being witty. (Don’t put your head in the oven. Go for the laughing gas instead!)

We don’t have to go through the birth canal butt first and create a struggling, breach rebirth for ourselves—another symptom of acting like homo asinine. Whenever there is a large-scale emergency like 9/11, New Orleans, or Haiti, to name a few examples, we get to see what we’re made of and our huge capacity to help one another. We don’t have to wait for localized earth changes to do the Chiron thing—to help others in spite of our own pain. You probably have friends, family, and colleagues who are up to their eyeballs in alligators from the Big Change Transits. They need your time and attention and sense of humor. By being there for them, you can ease their tension and help them get back to center where their power and resourcefulness lives. Giving and receiving are a flow of energy that heals the healer and the healee. We’re all hurting in these times, and we need to focus on love and laughter, not on holding our breath till we turn blue. The more I have reached out, the more my own challenges fall to the background. They are put into perspective in a web of rapid evolution toward living more from the heart.


“The Sky is Falling”

The prevailing tension and worry about the Big Change Transits brings to mind the old fable, The Sky is Falling, about Chicken Little or Henny Penny. An acorn falls on the chicken’s head, so she thinks the sky is crumbling. I was fascinated to discover in the linked Wikipedia article that the story, told for centuries, has different endings. Sometimes Foxy Loxy eats all the other animals (that one’s for the Scorpios) and in differing versions, Foxy may or may not get comeuppance for his heartless murders.

The happy ending version suggests not to be a “chicken,” to have courage, and not to believe everything you’re told. This goes for the Big Change Transits, too. Or to quote my favorite line in the Wiki article:

The Chicken jumps to a conclusion and whips the populace into mass hysteria, which the unscrupulous fox uses to manipulate them for his own benefit, sometimes as supper.

Let’s do our best to avoid whipping the world into mass hysteria over the current outerplanetary line-up, lest we get eaten alive. My mother had a great expression for folks who are slow on the uptake, “Some people need a house to fall on their head.” Let’s help others—and ourselves—get the point of the personal growth the current planetary line-up requires of us. Let’s start when the impact is that of an acorn and not wait till it’s a house falling on our head or the whole sky falling down. Above all, let’s offer a helping hand instead of hyperbole to both others and ourselves during interesting and intense times.


To-Do List

I believe the vast majority of the readers of this blog are PUNCs, because I think the content of The Radical Virgo would appeal primarily to outerplanetary people. Here’s a checklist I offer as a summary of this article, in lieu of The Sky Is Falling, to help yourself and others navigate changing times:

• Acknowledge the times may be no cakewalk, but encourage living on the upside of the zodiac and all the planets, houses, signs, and aspects within it.

• Never leave the house without your sense of humor, even if it’s gallows humor. The only way to navigate heavy energy and intense challenges is to lighten up.

• Help someone, and don’t wait till your friend or family member has a challenge of crisis proportions to offer a hand. It’s in helping that we’ll heal during fast evolution.

• Set aside time every day to plunge your own depths. Deep change comes from within and cannot occur without regular introspection. Some suggestions are meditation, journaling, or looking at your own astrology chart regularly with “beginner’s mind.”

•  Monitor your language. We are what we say we are; things become what we affirm. In talking about the current tension among the planets, remind yourself and others how all growth comes from discomfort and resolves to something new, usually better, and often comforting. Look at the squares and oppositions in the charts of famous people and your own evolution for confirmation. Focus on the positive outcome, not the uncomfortable “getting there.”

Species Renaming Contest

Do you think you can improve on homo improvement? In light of this “conversation,” I am beginning to like homo hearty for a new species moniker, but I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Comment with your idea(s) for a new species name through June 13, and you’ll be entered into a drawing for a free copy of my new e-book, Poems to Heal the Healer: The 12 Chiron Signs. Winner announced in the June 14 post.

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Notes
[1] As of this writing, Saturn has retrograded out its Cardinal position in Libra. Since this is temporary and it’ll be back to Libra shortly, I’ll still call the Pluto/Saturn/Uranus line-up The Cardinal T-Square for the sake of simplicity. When I refer to The Cardinal T-Square Plus, I’m including some of the other challenges like Chiron/Neptune quincunx Saturn and the join-up of Jupiter with Uranus by conjunction.

[2] I consider the outer planets prominent when two or more of the outer planets (Chiron, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) are in close aspect to personal planets in your chart (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Mars). You are especially outerplanetary when all the outers aspect your personals. Outer planets placed near the angles or aspecting the angles also qualify as prominent. An additional qualifier for outerplanetary is four or more planets in the signs the outer planets rule: Aquarius, Pisces and Scorpio. For these purposes, I count Chiron as an outer planet because of its role in helping us understand and handle the energies of the planets beyond Saturn. With its rulership controversial, let your personal opinion govern which sign to count, if any, as the sign Chiron rules. See Wholeness and the Inner Marriage. I always say, if Chiron has to rule a sign (and I’m not convinced it does), it would be Virgo because it is the transitional sign from the sign of One to the signs of Other and Many Others.

[3] See Articles by Joyce Mason on A Place in Space starting with Outerplanetary (Extraordinary) People, Part 1.

Related Material: Christine Grant has another great checklist and article about navigating the Big Change Transits in her most recent newsletter. Sign up on her website.

Photo Credit: Cartoon Prehistoric Man © Clairev Dreamstime.com