Dean’s Update, February 2025

March 6 marks the 6th birthday of the FCEA (try saying that six times fast!). Congratulations dear school! Near the end of next month, in March, Neptune makes a big shift by moving into Aries and I am wondering, now that we are in Pisces season, what type of vision do we need for our school? As we all know, there is a certain letting go process with the archetypes of Pisces and Neptune. What behaviors need to go now so that we can all take the Neptunian initiative with fiery action in the spirit of Aries? Being a mystic and going to the mountaintop all has its place. But somehow I feel now we need to be ready to act.

I am hoping this short essay might inspire FCEA students and community members to step out and make your own voices heard! Let me explain.

I think of Steven’s description of a child learning to read under a “Mercury time,” and how that little one carries that ability to read into the future, well past that moment with Mercury. How do we build upon the mystical insights and spiritual work we have been doing this past fourteen years since the watery planet of consciousness, Neptune, entered Pisces? In the years ahead, we all will need those spiritual tools earned through Neptune’s journey through each and every one of our charts to handle the potential low road of delusion and aggression possible with a “me first” attitude of Aries. But let’s also remember there is a high road of Aries. Where do we as a school of evolutionary astrology step into the future with Aries gumption and a warrior spirit?

In the natal chart of the FCEA, we have Chiron, the “wounded healer,” at 0°54’ Aries in the 11th house. Mercury at 29°34’ Pisces, stationed at the time of the school’s “birth,” before turning retrograde, and it conjuncts Chiron. Wouldn’t you agree this is such an intriguing natal conjunction, given Neptune’s current position and the planet’s upcoming ingress into Aries? Clearly, our particular methods and approach in practicing evolutionary astrology depend upon a compassionate, intuitive Piscean voice. Ideally, we help to guide the 11th house collective into a growth of spiritual consciousness. But that’s a tall order for our FCEA community! It takes courage! That Chiron of ours suggests that we may have a wound to process when it comes to asserting our right to “take up space” or claim “enlightened selfishness,” as Steven says, in the larger community we hope to serve.

I recall Steven’s accurate description of the high road of Mars, ruler of Aries, as “spiritual warrior.” Out-of-bounds Mars by transit is about to station direct February 23 at 17°00’ Cancer on the FCEA’s 3rd house cusp and in opposition to our Saturn at 18°13’ Capricorn on our 9th house cusp. Meanwhile, the FCEA’s progressed Moon in Gemini is just about to cross our school’s ascendant. What feeds our healing voices while we attempt to bring our ideas, methods and wisdom to the collective table? I mean this next statement in a most humble Piscean way, but I think we need to step into our power, our abilities to be leaders among our peers in astrology, to put ourselves first as worthy healers of a choice-centered evolutionary approach. Our voices have a right to “take up space”!

It is time for our voices to be heard and be a force for change in our world. Have you thought about sharing your own astrological insights built upon a foundation of your studies at the FCEA? Or how about writing ideas in response to Steven’s Q and A calls or his many insightful publications? Consider giving a paper at one of the many astrology conferences or organizational meetups. Or introduce evolutionary astrology through a local gathering. As FCEA students and community members, we all have a multiplicity of Gemini perspectives that our school’s Progressed Moon wants to boldly put forward. It is time to claim that Aries Chiron wound in the 11th and use it to forge ahead with confidence and a strong, yet healing, voice. We’ve got this! And we all have something to say.