I've taken a closer look at the chart for the Celebration of Sacred Sexuallity. As you know, I won't be at the event because I'm in Germany living with a friend I met at last year's conference, which in a real way never ended for me -- though in the months that followed my week at Harbin Springs, so many changes swept through my life that I can't account for them all yet. Looking back, it was a crucial personal turning point because I was able to experience and witness so many possibilities that before then were just ideas, and because for one of the few times in my life I tapped into the power of group consciousness in sexuality. And I met two people who have been instrumental in my growth and personal recovery, and who have helped me keep my wheels on the ground while taking some very sharp curves.

Like many journalists, I am a little cynical and very idealistic at the same time, though there was no question in my mind, by the closing circle, that what I had stumbled into was a movement that had the power to gain real strength and touch the lives of many people. These things take time, and yet the delay in our culture figuring out the vital need for obvious changes is just that; a delay, and it's not necessary.

It's clear that we as individuals are starting to go places that we cannot go alone. We must find people to go with us, or we'll never arrive.

In your chart (July 17, 1998 at 7:30 p.m. PDT, Harbin Springs, CA), the emphasis on group consciousness is again quite clear. The bolt of cosmic fire that began around last year's celebration shoots between Scorpio, where we are confronted with our deepest, darkest passions and the psychic urge for orgasm and purification, and Aquarius, where we are born into collective freedom and where we as individuals can finally merge with a group. Chiron is bold in this chart, high overhead, focusing not just healing energy but power and pleasure (Eric Jong has said you rarely have one without the other). Uranus, in this aspect, adds the drive for freedom from the familiar and "power in num- bers."

Along these lines, I think your idea for affinity groups, where people with common interests and needs can meet daily, is brilliant. With a little opportunity, group energy will crystallize into shapes that can't be predicted now.

What is new in this chart is a striking theme of getting clear in one-on-one relationships. There is a kind of struggle between the drive for security and the even more powerful drive to confront the thing about ourselves we fear the most: our passion. The way this works in the energy of the event is through very intense, vivid mirroring of this force whenever people meet. What gets mirrored the most is naked desire. I think people will be shocked at how much of their own desire they see reflected back at them, yet what stands out is a selfless willingness for that energy to be used by others for their own needs. This is in the form of the asteroid Vesta, which is prominent on the relationship angle of the chart.

I have seen that people are terrified of their desire, and terrified of the desire of others. Most of the time this combination of desire and fear takes extremely toxic forms, and rarely does it have the opportunity to be released into freedom. The lust of the human spirit is a powerful force, and that lust is going to feel "in your face" every time someone gazes into the cosmic mirror. Yet there is a deep link to the tradition of Sacred Prostitution, a kind of offering up of one's own desire to whoever needs it. Raw passion, need, rage and lust can be incinerated in a kind of Vestal flame of transformation. Use your imagination about what that would look like in a group environment. The potential for healing and pleasure can't be overstated, though I suggest that people considering attending know that they will be presented with the opporutnity to deal with real issues and that there will likely be some intense moments for everyone.

I want to briefly mention something that may seem far off but in astrological terms is really very close at hand. In August 1999, the world undergoes a powerful initiation in the form of a massive total solar eclipse the like of which has not been seen for many years, perhaps generations. In my research into this event, one thing clear is the sexual nature of the initiation. It's as if the Human race is in a struggle to finish its process of incarnation on this plane, and the place we need to do the most work is pouring our souls into the sexual aspect of being. This event, in many ways, will affect every person on the planet and send shock waves throughout civilizations, yet on the individual level the emphasis is on being fully in our bodies and our sense of self through sexual awareness and experience.

I believe the single most important thing people can do to prepare for this is get into integrity on their sexuality. This means surrendering guilt, agreeing to confront jealousy directly and releasing ourselves fully into our sexual identity. Between the Celebration of Sacred Sexuality chart and the eclipse one year later there are clear energy lines, and I can't think of a better place to get the process started than your event.

Let me know if you have any other questions, and feel free to share this information.

Peace & passion,

Originally published as 1998 Astrological Reading for Sacred Sexuality and Beyond..., June 1998 on Love Without Limits at http://www.lovewithoutlimits.com/reading98.html.