“We are the Borg . . .  Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.”

from the film, “Star Trek: First Contact“

Or is it? Perhaps is some circumstances and life cycles resistance is not quite futile and may even be encouraged depending on what it is you are resisting. In Shamanic Astrology, or astrology in general, there are some things that take place within specific planetary cycles or initiations where events occur that are well beyond one’s control. In those cases, a Shamanic Astrologer would point out one way or another that resistance is futile. But which cases or planets are involved? And a deeper question comes up is what are we trying to resist?

Diving deeper into the subject, what is the one constant that appears in every single astrological cycle? It is “you”! Or more generally, it is the human being. You are the common thread in all cycles in your life or another’s life is where it can begin. With that in mind, we can expand to one’s personal archetypes and active planets orbiting your life and initiating you in a multitude of cycles and life phases. How then, does one participate in their own cycles? How can you honor yourself during a specific phase or cycle? And are you honoring yourself by resisting the events or transformation taking place within you?

The planets have their nearly eternal dance in the night sky against the background of stars and other celestial bodies. We gaze upon them, literally whole other worlds and gargantuan spheres of fire, plasma and electromagnetic energy connected in some way to all others, including this world and reaching out to galaxies and clusters of galaxies and coming back to Earth. From our perspective, we see patterns and project out images, archetypes, symbols, meanings, feelings and also, over time, recognize the weave of regular patterns through the solar seasons, lunar phases and returns of planets back to whence they came, over and over again. It is these planets and other objects in their patterns and returns which move with us back here on Earth, growing and evolving as we do.

Within those patterns and returns, we can see, over time (which is largely measured/tracked primarily through seasonal and astronomical patterns/changes), how they relate to our own soul’s growth and intent in this lifetime. In Shamanic Astrology, we recognize that all of these planetary, seasonal, star, solar and lunar cycles, patterns and returns ultimately assist us in discovering who we really are, our soul’s intent and providing numerous opportunities to reach wholeness and experience the widest variety of feelings and experiences. We encounter those feelings and experiences by relating to everything around us and within us.

As we come back to the patterns and cycles that guide all of us and the question of resistance. For most of us, it is natural for us to resist experiences, events and even feelings that are hard, difficult or challenging in nature. We like our comforts and pleasures (whatever they may be) and when something doesn’t initially agree with us, we may find a way to resist it using denial, ignorance, fighting or some other means at our disposal. But is that resistance in alignment with our life path? As stated in the beginning, in some cases it may be, especially on the wide variety of paths unique to us as individuals and groupings of people. However, the movements of the planets and the patterns they create move alongside all of us and can present opportunities and gifts where not resisting is one of the critical qualities.

PLUTO AND URANUS

Pluto and Uranus cycles, for example, are the two most well-known planetary cycles (in Shamanic Astrology terms) where it is counseled that resistance would not be beneficial to you. These two planets, while operating from an underworld or celestial world perspective respectively, symbolize “events beyond our control.” There are other planets and/or cycles where it is counseled the very same thing, but it is not a primary quality. With Pluto and Uranus cycles, these are planetary processes where a person is encouraged to have a certain level of trust in the process of their life in that what is happening is aligned with their soul’s intent. However, trusting in the process of something that is beyond one’s control is never easy, nor is it meant to be.

In a Pluto cycle or initiation, the intent is for a person to experience (through events beyond their control) their deepest feelings, face their fears, then a transformation (death/rebirth) and empowerment at the soul-level. Pluto’s emergence in a person’s life provides ample opportunity to pour into the depth of their being and release emotional (sometimes physical) toxins that have built up over long periods of time, to look at themselves in the mirror and see who they are underneath their physical and rational nature.

The Pluto cycle is typically an uncomfortable process, but it is a necessary one. The transformation and empowerment can only come about when we can truly face ourselves and our fears. Rebirthing can be painful, but like the deep earth soils, the cycle helps us to reach the buried treasures within ourselves and produce the bounty of our authenticity.

In the case of a Uranus cycle or initiation, the intent here is for a person to let go of previously held notions of comfortability, routine and structure. It is a process of developing freedom from the known and a shattering of your “assemblage point”. The Uranus cycle is also a time when unexpected and unpredictable events of great novelty take place that a “beyond your control”. It is a time when resistance to change becomes exceedingly difficult as if the Universe were conspiring to change your life no matter what.

Shamanic Astrologers would counsel to not resist what comes into a person’s life when in a Uranus cycle and trust that events are taking you where you need to go. A person is encouraged to roll with the changes that “come out of nowhere”. With Uranus, a person is operating in non-linear time (Celestial World energy) where sudden epiphanies can strike like lightning and radical synchronicities appear. As is the case with Pluto, one can’t control or even foresee what will take place during this cycle (certainly not the fine details). In general terms, the farther off your soul’s intent, the more dramatic the events can be. So in this cycle, resistance truly is futile.

With either Pluto or Uranus, one can most certainly resist, but it will only make the cycle/initiation a more challenging affair. Every soul experiences growth, evolution, involution and/or otherwise has an intent when emerging from the womb. Resistance in those initiations equates to resistance to your own soul’s intent.

OTHER CYCLES AND RESISTANCE

There are other cycles beyond Uranus and Pluto where resistance is not suggested and, in fact, discouraged. While the term, “beyond one’s control” doesn’t enter into the primary language of these cycles/initiations, it can seemingly appear in these cycles at times depending on our individual circumstances.

Some examples of initiations where resistance is discouraged would be the planetary body Chiron and within a Mars Return Cycle (see here for more information on this cycle). Beginning with Chiron, we are being initiated into a process of self-healing through looking deeply at our wounding, be it betrayal, abandonment, perfection, guilt/shame, victimization or even lack of self-love. Everyone on the planet has some wounding from somewhere or another. Many of us do not consciously invite looking too closely at what they are, represent or even how they may exercise unconscious control over our lives. During a Chiron cycle, the general counseling would be to look at those wounds, see how they have influenced us and work on a process of healing. Ultimately, the intent of this cycle is to alchemize those wounds into an elixir to provide us with an inner strength where the wounds may guide us in a healthy way but no longer control us from deep well of our souls.

This is where it is suggested to take time to digest those deep experiences and not to resist the pull toward introspection and soul-searching. Resistance in a Chiron cycle can lead to health issues on some level as the soul-wounds can manifest physically or otherwise tangibly in some way.

In a Mars Return Cycle, there are phases within the cycle that require a person to surrender their ideas of control and feel their feelings (similar to a Pluto initiation) and another phase that asks a person to meet tasks or challenges that can produce more growth in understanding their relationship to the masculine or even who they are as a man in this culture or world. It is counseled that a person does not resist the inner awareness of wanting to move beyond who they thought they were on a personal level and even in relationship to others.

UNDERSTANDING THE RESISTANCE

In the examples cited above, the purpose or intent of those initiations is not to resist so that we may really experience more happiness and fulfillment in life in the long run. For each individual, the strategy or approach is going to be generally unique to themselves. Resistance is natural, however, and should be explored as to why one is resisting something.

There are situations, though, that call for resistance. In some life processes of what one is learning overall may require, for instance, to speak up more, to call out themselves or another, which can be seen as a form of resistance that counters another person’s idea of how something should be done. Or even the resistance in unusual events where harm is being done and resistance is encouraged to mitigate the harm.

Another example would be someone who is learning how to be more revolutionary and novel in their lives (Aquarius) and the promotion of ideas that are ahead of their time. The ideas could be seen as a form of resistance against what the culture believes is “normal”. In fact, they may even categorize it as harmful even if the ideas are not harmful at all. So resistance can rise from both sides. This is a classic (Aquarius/Capricorn or Saturn/Uranus) discourse and either lead to a deeper respect and understanding between them or trigger shadow energies that overcome harmful effects. As we have seen in history, this has happened numerous times, changing the course of history for humanity.

So is resistance futile?  It is sometimes, but other times it may be called for.  When looking at cycles or initiations, it is important to keep in mind what resistance can do or cannot do in one’s life. By resisting something, we still bring it to life by putting energy toward that which we resist. It is suggested that we ask ourselves “why am I resisting that?” And if we are truly honest with ourselves, we may be surprised with the answers. What is at stake is our soul.

• Written by Erik M Roth, Shamanic Astrologer

Special thanks to the Borg (Gene Roddenberry and others who created the idea of Star Trek and the Borg) of “Star Trek” for popularizing “Resistance is Futile”.

NOTE: All astrological material noted above is based on the paradigm of Shamanic Astrology, which originated from Daniel Giamario