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Terence
McKenna was one of the great explorers of consciousness, and of the wild
Earth. His relationship both with the psyche
and anima mundi (world soul) was unique. He was a man of fabulous
intellect, with the capacity to articulate in a rational manner the behaviors
and experiences of the non-rational mind. Famous for his explorations
of the inner world of psychedelics—primarily those arising naturally in
the flora of Earth—he was also a fearless traveler
into the regions of the world where shamanic use of various psychotropic
drugs is ethical and employed with reverence toward the gods who provided
them.
Terence
traveled to the Colombian Amazon, and from that experience in 1971, wrote
True Hallucinations in 1993 for Harper Collins. This is
his primary work in transcendental experiences. McKenna's horoscope, even
on the most superficial level, describes the archetypes that he lived
out to the fullest, and even his early death shows as yet another exploration
of unknown territory.
Investigating
the Psyche
 McKenna
was born on November 16, 1946, at 7:25 am in Hotchkiss, Colorado, with
the heroic Sun and the romantic Venus rising in Scorpio in the house of
ancestral souls—the Twelfth House. His fearless psychological detective
work is a Scorpio trait, intrepidly advancing into the steamy recesses
of the psyche and the multi-dimensional world of consciousness.
Novelty
and Time
Among
many things, McKenna’s thoughts produced a link between novelty
and time. His recent work attempted to comprehend the qualitative, experiential
aspect of time. The current collective experience
of “time speeding up” led him to propose a unique theory involving a kind
of periodic “quickening.”
The
quality of time as we now experience it is in the highest stage of quickening,
and we are in a time of high degree novelty. The peak of current novelty
he has dated to December 21, 2012, when the Winter Solstice and the
heliacal rising of the galactic center coincide. This date
is also aligned with the last notations in the Mayan calendar—when time
as we know it will undergo a transformation.
Now,
novelty is associated with the planet Uranus, the planet in which we experience
unique individuality and inventive, innovative ideas. Uranus is a maverick
in McKenna’s chart, a planet without aspects to the other planets, and
is found in his Seventh House—the house in which one is "married," and
where one's most committed passions lie. With that in mind, it would seem
that McKenna was married to novelty, dependent on innovativeness and deeply
committed to change and transformation.
The
Academic Iconoclast
McKenna’s
Mercury and Mars are both in Sagittarius (another signature of travels,
both inner and outer) and link his impeccable academic, researching mind
to a more adventurous and iconoclastic world-view (shown by the Moon in
Virgo in the Ninth House, along with Saturn and Pluto in Leo).
There
was nothing fuzzy about McKenna's logic, nor his ability to explain his
theories and exploration of the mysteries of consciousness in a rapid-fire
way. The combination of Mars and Mercury is the fast-talking philosopher
(Sagittarius), and the trine to his Saturn-Pluto conjunction in the Ninth
House gave his mind depth, rigor, power and the relentless desire to unearth
truths—including the ability to admit when he was wrong.
Chemistry
and the Cosmic Joke
Sagittarius
is the truth-seeker, and the Ninth House is the place wherein we find
dogma and doctrine (not always “truth”). McKenna was fairly nuclear in
his attack on conventional attitudes, shown by his Saturn and Pluto in
Leo in the Ninth House. This placement also gave him a sense of cosmic,
black humor. The “cosmic joke” is a Sagittarian safety-release for the
tension of realizing that the cosmos is a vast place, and ultimately,
can be frightening to an individual. Within it, however, are tricks of
illusion that pose as reality. Buddhism also acknowledges the humor of
this situation.
Shamanism
in the Western world—especially the American Western world—is a cosmic
joke, attempting to clarify our place as human beings in the universe,
and challenging our
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Erin Sullivan has been a consulting astrologer for over 30 years. Author of five books; tutor at the Centre for Psychological Astrology in London; editor for Arkana's astrology series from 1989-99; consults from, writes and teaches in Tucson, AZ. Depth pyschologically orientated work including predictive; high technical knowledge; classics background - business advisor and coaching available.
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