The Sky Is Building a Basket This Week

Welcome Dear Ones,

This week the sky is doing something rare. A configuration called Barbault’s Basket is forming, and Jupiter in Leo is pouring his fire into the deep, tectonic work of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. That is a lot of movement for one week. You may feel it as breakthrough, or as pressure, or both at once. Either way, the invitation is the same. Come back to your breath. Come back to your feet on the ground. In Experiential Astrology, we do not just talk about the sky, we let the body metabolise it. If this week has you spinning, a grounded, embodied reading can help you find your footing inside the intensity.

This Week’s Astrology (July 19th – 25th)

This is a special edition Of Cosmic Compass as the configuration known as Barbault’s Basket, predicted by the late French astrologer Andre Barbault, who also predicted the global changes represented by the pandemic, is happening this week!

Three of the big players in the current global deconstruct/reconstruct process, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto have been working in sync, an unusual situation on its own, for some time and have been frequently mentioned in these updates. As we know, collectively we’ve been under the pump for a couple of years.

What is incredibly rare is that Jupiter now in Leo is forming aspects to all three of these outer planets just as each of them reach 4° of their respective signs. This is what creates the visual basket arrangement in the current chart. Basically this means that the usually benevolent Jupiter, very much on fire in Leo, is pouring his huge energy into the actions of each of these players as well as neon lighting up the whole aspect pattern.

This means that Jupiter will be expanding the radical and liberating change work of Uranus, the psychic, spiritual and creative energies of Neptune and the primal transformative and empowering energies of Pluto. On paper that sounds really good but in real life it’s going to intensify everything that is going on but, with the additional possibilities of extraordinary breakthroughs on all these levels.

You can see why everybody has an opinion about this line up online all the way from utopian delusion to an exaggeration of the dark forces already surfacing. What others haven’t been seeing is that a number of the goddesses and the karmic Nodes of the Moon are also engaged in this pattern.

The Kaali asteroid is on Uranus, adding both explosive and liberating potential, Medusa is squaring both Jupiter and Pluto intensifying both, Hygeia is close to Jupiter heightening the healing opportunities of this time and, Juno is conjuncting Pluto once again in a year long process of relationship transformation.* So, my dear readers, basically anything could happen! What we do know is these big players speak more of huge tectonic shifts rather than individual events.

Other significant aspects this week include the Sun going into Leo on Thursday,
Mercury in Cancer slows as he goes forward motion on the same day, creating an uncomfortable and frustrating Mercury/Saturn square, Venus and Mars are having a tug-of-war between Virgo and Gemini, while two of the Liliths, the asteroid and the Black Moon, are facing off between Gemini and Sagittarius.

Take care, keep grounded and be kind to yourself as well as others, as we all share on one level or another the great intensity of this time.

Daniel. 

* Synchronistically, I will be speaking live and online about the Juno/Pluto process in Aquarius at the monthly meeting of SARS, the Sydney Astrological Research Society on Wednesday evening the 29th. Join us at sydneyastrology.org

Reflection + Embodiment

Journal
Where in my life do I feel the pull between breakthrough and overwhelm right now

Practice
Stand with both feet flat on the ground. Bend your knees slightly. Inhale for four counts, feeling your weight sink down through your feet. Exhale for six counts, letting your shoulders soften. Repeat eight times, noticing where your body wants to brace and gently inviting it to release.

Archetype Spotlight: 

Uranus is the sudden break, the flash of insight or disruption that will not be ignored. With the Kaali asteroid activating Uranus and Jupiter magnifying its charge this week, change may arrive quickly and without much warning.

Uranus does not care about comfort or timing. Its psychological role is liberation, freeing us from patterns we have outgrown, even when we were not ready to let them go. The practical takeaway is to stay flexible rather than rigid this week. What Uranus breaks open usually clears space for something truer to take its place.