Sarah Varcas
The final month of 2014 is dominated by the penultimate exact Uranus/Pluto square mid month (14th/15th December). With it we enter the grand finale of this potent alignment which has been with us since 2012 and finally begins to fade come April next year. No one has been left untouched by the quickening power of this time. Many peoples’ lives now bear little resemblance to how they looked before these two planetary heavy-weights began their alchemical dance. Nothing and no one has been protected from the destructively creative grace conjured by the cosmos these past few years. The challenge for so many has been to let go and trust, to embrace the changes brought about no matter how devastating they may have felt at the time. To look into the darkness, of self, of other, of life and to recognise that within it lays the deepest wisdom, the most enduring truths. This past year has been about acknowledging and owning the personal and collective shadow in order to recognise that it is not some dreadful realm to be feared, rejected and denied but simply another part of ourselves to be embraced, accepted and, in doing so, brought into the wholeness of all that we are. This year has demanded the deepest authenticity we could muster and then some! It has been both brutal and beautiful in equal measure, destructive and creative at one and the same time. To quote Joni Eareckson-Tada when referring to the wheelchair that symbolises her quadriplegia from the age of seventeen, this year has been ‘a bruise of a blessing, a terrible grace’. And this coming month which brings it to a close, reminds us that whilst the journey is nowhere near over, some of the more challenging times are now behind us.