“People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.”
-Alan Moore, V for Vendetta
There is an exhausted adage that politics is a great deal like making sausage if you like sausage it is wise to avoid ever seeing it made. The current election cycle seems only to reinforce this jaundiced view of the world. This is perhaps the one hazard of a two party system that increasingly is being hijacked by the oligarchic system that has emerged in the U.S. This cannot be denied as there is objective evidence to indicate that this is exactly what has happened. It has led to two frontrunners that are largely out of touch with the concerns of the populace. One that is an authoritarian bigot and the other who will mostly likely maintain a status quo that has largely not served the majority of people in the country, and will continue to serve the narrow interests as defined under the current system.
This is the result of a number of different factors. A few that could be mentioned a Republican led Congress which has utilized a political strategy of obstructionism which has halted progress on a great number of policy areas without herculean efforts by the executive branch to break through the deadlock, if things remain as they are in that realm it will prove to be more of the same. It’s also an expression of some major systemic issues that cannot be solved without an overhaul of our entire democracy. It would entail the initiation of a number of policy instruments, all of which have been built into the democracies of the industrialized west.
Ranked choice voting which would actually create the policy framework for multiple parties to emerge, it works on the concept that you get to select a number of candidates by ranking them in order of preference. If the first choice loses the popular vote it automatically defaults to your second choice until a candidate is selected that wins the vote and is summarily elected. Another option is to put term limits on Congressional sessions as has been done for Members of Parliament in parliamentary democracies such as Canada which has placed 5 year term limits on MP’s and that they can only serve for the duration of the existing Parliament. It means that after five years Parliament is effectively dissolved and a new one is selected by the presiding party or during an election year. A final framework is to ensure that a country has a well educated populace so that policy decisions can be made to serve the greatest number of participants in the democratic system. In the U.S. there has been a concerted effort at confusing many of the issues that have a factual basis and the consensus of a number of integral players. There has emerged a culture of debated facts even though it is irrelevant, as a fact cannot be argued against because it still remains. A personal opinion about reality is irrelevant it is akin to arguing if there are things like hats, the color red, and the need for mammalian lifeforms to breath oxygen to survive, you can have an opinion in opposition or concurrence with any of these it does not change their intrinsic reality.
The Sibley Chart: Natal Chart of the U.S. meets the 2016 Election
There are some fascinating aspects that stand out from the nations birth chart synergized with the transits occurring on November 8th the day of the election cycle. A focus on some of the longer term transits implied by the outer planets is descriptive as to future directions that will emerge from this election as well as the continuation of demographic and social transitions that have historical antecedents. The points of tension in the chart involve the Sun making a square aspect to Pluto in transit. An ingress of transiting Pluto activating a natal Pluto conjunction which will activate a Sun opposition to Pluto is also prominent in this election cycle and as this is a longer range aspect it will continue to reverberate long after the election results. A Jupiter conjunction to Natal Saturn is also represented and poses a significant challenge being in the tenth house. A Uranus conjunction to the natal Chiron position is also very prominent and each of these aspects correlates well to a contemporary dilemma that the U.S. is currently facing. Finally, a long transit of Saturn across the Ascendant has led to massive changes in the national identity with demographic shifts that will continue well into the 21st Century.
Starting with the Solar square to Pluto this election has proven to be the most contentious in recent U.S. history and potentially the most farcical. First of all one of the candidates is actively a bombastic authoritarian circus clown, parading his incompetence in a profligate and outspoken way which is appealing to a populist campaign that is based in demagoguery. The other has demonstrated with a 30 year career a great deal of competence and skill, and yet a significant wake of controversy and scandal has followed her in the recent election campaigning, as well as some accusations of Hawkish foreign policy when acting as Secretary of State which does create some pause.
This touches off another highly volatile aspect forming in the national chart that will have long term ramifications. Namely the Pluto conjunction forming in the 2nd house which has to do with values and finance. The 2008 Financial collapse was the first entre of this aspect which redefined the economy of the U.S. and gave rise to the populist sentiment we have seen in this election. In essence overnight entire job categories were wiped out and people lost their homes due to faulty mortgage instruments. Many of the job categories that were lost would never return at the end of the downturn. It is here that a new conflict has arisen which will play out over the longer term. With this more lean economy many are feeling the strong pinch it has created and are becoming aware that increasingly the U.S. is an oligarchic system which serves only the narrow interests of a capitalist elite and that most government ignores the plight of the rank and file.
A convergence of factors could potentially exacerbate this and turn into a situation of white hot intensity, namely rising inequality, technological unemployment, the first knock results of climate change, and an increase in downward mobility. This constellation of determinants is ensuring that in the years ahead we may see civil unrest that will dwarf the Occupy movement and demand that the entire economic and social framework of the country undergo massive evolutionary change. That a significant anti-capitalist movement has begun to emerge in the most privatized and capitalized nation on Earth should give all of us pause, there is a viable resistance to the enclosure. The Plutocracy in place is likely to be called out and the elite will be made to account to the majority and recognize that they have a social responsibility to uphold and that failing that it is possible we could see the country further splinter.
Adding to this furnace is that it will touch a natal aspect, the Pluto-Sun opposition that will bring a significant challenge to the national leadership at all levels including changes in the make-up of the Supreme Court. This election will decide the composition of the court for years to come as there are currently a number of seats up for reinstatement, ergo it will also have profound implications for the legal direction the U.S. ultimately follows. This further reinforced by a changing makeup also occurring in Congress. Currently the Republicans hold a majority in the Congress, it is likely depending on who gets the Presidency that this could change fairly radically, it will all depend on how the public votes in this election.
The next prominent aspect involves the Uranus conjunction to Chiron in the fourth house of the National chart. With this brings up the historic wounds of the U.S. and its early formation. The sudden awareness of these deep fractures can emerge violently and unexpectedly from different quarters of society, and namely it is from the voices of the oppressed that we are seeing the biggest clarion calls. The U.S. was formed at the aegis of a genocide of the Native People’s that populated the continent prior to European contact. It was the wanton destruction and slaughter of the Native people’s that provided the impetus for national expansion and establishment. In the contemporary period this is reflected in the surprising and sudden outburst of civil unrest surrounding the North Dakota Access Pipeline, an infrastructure project which places a petroleum pipeline into sacred territory that falls under the purview of the Sioux nations.
The protest has been fierce and unexpected, and even with a willful silence among mainstream media failing to report the full impact of the protests smaller media outlets and popular sentiment against the pipeline have demonstrated that the wound of Native genocide must be reckoned with. This represents a unique moment for the US to finally address ancient enmities and create the potential for reconciliation. Encouragingly president Obama announced that he will coordinate with the Army Corp of Engineers to re-route the pipeline away from contested territory. While great news it does beg the question as to why we continue to pay lip service to Native autonomy, and further why in an age of changing climate we are not properly acting to spur development of non-carbon intensive forms of energy and spending billions on a pipeline that keeps us addicted to fossil fuels (the source of one of our contemporary wounds, that of our significant complicity in Climate Change however unwitting). The move can also be problematic as it could dissolve the solidarity movement that has formed around the controversy and ultimately we should be asking ourselves if anymore pipelines of this type should be built, we are at a moment when we need to be rapidly scaling back on petroleum expansion and aggressively researching and developing cleaner alternatives.
Another example emerges from the forceful emergence of the Black Lives Matter Movement in response to continual state repression and police brutality of predominately black communities. For the two hundred years of the US’s existence slavery was the main driver of the economy and of the labor done to secure the US to a position of unprecedented wealth that it enjoys today. That the US enslaved and disenfranchised an entire segment of humanity based on nothing more than the color of their skin rarely comes into a historical dialogue. It is this wound which today continues to be inflicted in the form of police shootings of unarmed Black individuals, a broken judicial system which continues to disproportionately incarcerate Black persons, and an economic arrangement that continues to pay Black women 66 cents to the dollar of her male counterparts, and relegates many Black people to poverty and glaring health disparities that continue to oppress them even years after miscegenation and slavery. This is the American moment in which we could turn the tide and come to a place of restorative justice but only if we take to heart and to task our entire culture and awaken from our privilege and historical blindness.
Which brings us to the Jupiter Saturn conjunction in the tenth house of the national chart. This election has proven that our system of democracy is a farce and an affront to integrity, further it has also proven the US a world-wide embarrassment that eclipses the Brexit fiasco. It comes down to how public this election has been and how in a global age information zings from one corner of the planet to the other within seconds. The embarrassment comes from that fact that an authoritarian ompa-loompa in the name of Donald Trump, a disastrously unqualified candidate has somehow made it all the way to the final electoral vote as a viable contender for the one of the most significant political offices in the World. What’s more his campaign has given a mouthpiece to the alt right, some of the worst proto-fascist sentiment seen in modern times. Demagogues such as David Duke and Milo Yiannopolous have been given a mainstream platform for their extreme and often socially divisive views. It has made many in the Republican party apoplectic, and the left begin to launch a more progressive platform that has caused a frameshift mutation among the Democratic party moving it left of center.
Ultimately, the sentiment of the US is expressed in that last aspect being made to the national chart that of Saturn passing over the national Ascendant in the decidedly feminist sign of Ophiuchus. That there has been an increasing awareness on the historical paradoxes of the national founding, an amplified awareness surrounding issues of female empowerment and the rights of racial, sexual, and gender minorities is certainly encouraging, granted we have a long way to go. What’s more it is a symbolic expression of the changing face of the nation as we undergo an historic demographic transition in that by 2042 people of color will comprise 64% of the U.S. population and White people will become a numeric minority (whether this will mean an end to white privilege is another debate). It is hoped that as we cross this threshold and the face of our nation becomes ever more colorful that our best days are ahead of us yet, provided we don’t fall prey to the Trumpocalypse that could ensue should the nuclear orange tyrant be awarded the Presidency.
On that note lets dive into the symbolic meanings of the election for each of the zodiacal harbingers.
April 19th-May 13th
Aries faces an interesting dilemma in this election namely that the Ram has watched consistently as the government has chipped away at Civil Liberties one paper-cut at a time. It started with the Patriot Act which the public had only minimal say in and continued with Citizens United a decision that had zero public input and has culminated with controversy over the Trans Pacific Partnership, which strips national sovereignty and supersedes domestic autonomy in trade disputes. Aries has witnessed as the national elders align themselves with executives and other panderers to the financial elites and watched it government be bought one piece at a time, sold to the highest bidder, Climate Change and inequality be damned.
Aries now faces the question of what happens when all of your elders are stupid, your government has become an oligarchy, and revolt is the only act of integrity left? Aries has figured it gets really pissed off and then starts to act, it is at least what is most advisable given the circumstances. With the super-moon falling in your sign you are certainly empowered symbolically to do so. I would council that you need to carefully plan your strategy to maximize the Mars transit through Capricorn which lends itself to careful consideration, strategy is everything in these turbulent and highly politicized times. Aries can have a tendency to go in head first horns raging, I suggest that you do that but pick the target carefully.
May 14th-June 19th
Taurus has been acutely aware of the idea of political economy, the concept that political theory and economic necessity are inextricably linked and that the policy landscape often reflects the prevailing economic arrangements. The Bull is deeply pained by the rising inequality they see all around them, exacerbated by technological unemployment and the basic capitalist assumptions that are inadequate to address the changing realities that it has wrought namely Climate Change and ecological devastation a result of a rapacious appetite to turn living things into dead commodities. Taurus recognizes that an economic heresy on the scale of planetary implication is the only way forward.
The Bull has little patience for Capitals apologetics and is demanding unequivocally the initiation of a Universal Basic Income, crypto-currencies, the re-localization of economics, the initiation of decentralized, distributive manufacturing, automation and resource based economics. It is the birth of system that truly benefits the masses, eliminates inequality and wisely uses resources in an efficient, zero-waste and sustainable fashion. Taurus knows Capitalism cannot redeem itself based solely on its basic assumptions as it has given rise to cyclic consumption, Neoliberalism, and planned obsolescence all of which are anathema to the continuance of life on Earth. This is an economics of survival, and one that raises the standard of living for everyone and truly eliminates poverty. Taurus do keep an eye on your resources this month and namely finds ways that you can put your economic heresy into practice.
June 20th-July 20th
Gemini understands duality very intimately it often deals in the paradox of being two people at the same time, a sort of Jekyll and Hyde tension. That the US a Gemini Sun nation often expresses this paradox comes as no surprise to Gemini. The country has largely fractured into two different countries both economically and politically. There is the 1% who owns most of the country’s wealth and then the 99% rank and file who are largely struggling to maintain a tenuous hold on a shrinking middle class, and the greater majority who are struggling to put bread on the table, and working two, three or more jobs to provide a meager living on the edge of exhaustion in the so called wealthiest nation on Earth (for all that wealth we have a major distribution problem!).
Politically, we have two nations, the Blue liberal one hugging the urban centers and both of the coastlines and the Red conservative one making up the rural and vast majority of what are insultingly referred to as “fly-over” states (believe me I have been to these states and it is a very unfair characterization). Gemini of course has mastered how to get its doppelganger to cooperate with its more socially acceptable representative, in a word the twins get along even with a difference in opinion, it is exactly this sentiment that Gemini embodies in these times of political social media echo chambers and an inability to come to a policy consideration by working across the aisle. It is largely what is driving our national crisis is that we have so fractured that there is no cross-dialogue. Gemini November is the month where you are tasked with addressing the significant divides in your life whether we are discussing the national fracture, which you clearly recognize as a kind of social madness; or the ideological differences that keep you playing Wing play-lists to punish your a#@hole neighbors who keep you up late with frat boy conversation. As a socially aware being with a diplomatic streak I am sure you can broker at least a truce that bridges the divide.
July 21st-August 8th
The United States has always been a divided nation on a great deal of many issues. As much as it would like to claim the title United, it is something that even the Federalist papers could not completely secure and a great deal of it has to do with social fractures that have long historic precedent dating back to the formation of the country itself. Genocide, slavery, religious oppression, and class distinctions were the founding realities of the U.S. and still reverberate today in the various divides that define the culture of the US. The Civil War was fought over the ending of slavery and today the new fight is over police brutality and the continuing disenfranchisement of Black people from meaningful participation in society, as well as structural racism that still exists within US cultural institutions. There are many other divides that can be invoked with historical antecedents, the point is that Cancer has an acute awareness of the subtle and implicit bifurcations that exist between people.
Cancer has the ability to feel these an emotional level and from this level of deep feeling can begin to dismantle the structures that continue to perpetuate these cycles of history. In the questioning of implicit biases and the blind-spots that are brought to our attention from those who experience the oppression there can begin a process of reprogramming our unconscious drives to better reflect the social realities of our era and a need to radically re-arrange our social contracts to create a society that grants meaningful participation form all factions within it. This is work that all the signs should be engaged in albeit Cancer is more attuned to it as they tend to have a better read of people’s concerns. Another dimension that Cancers (and others) of privilege will be attuned to is the need to lower their own volume and listen to the voices of those who experience a daily litany of discrimination, and amplify their voices in the cultural dialogue. It is big work but with Cancers natural attenuation to understanding the power that culture holds over us they play an integral role in the disruption of the current status quo, especially as this relates to political considerations.
August 9th-September 15th
The US presently and in various periods of its history has been an oligarchic system, one in which a financial elite is favored over the concerns of the majority. The usual manifestation of this has been a largely white and male leadership. Here’s the clincher, our current Congress is comprised almost entirely of white wealthy men, it should come as no surprise that our nation’s policies do not reflect the reality of the social demographics that comprise the U.S. Why am I mentioning this to Leo it is because leadership falls under the symbol set of your sign and so there is a unique attunement to what good leadership actually is. There were rare and few monarchs throughout history who understood acutely that the conditions their subjects had to live under had a direct effect on them and so sought to struggle along with their people. There have also been rare and few leaders in our history who have understood this and made policy decisions surrounding it. Leo I am imploring to be one of these rare and few leaders, to understand that it is a matter of leading by example and not giving orders.
Further, at a time when so much of the system has been degraded by corporatization revolt and civil disobedience has become the only viable strategy for calling out illegitimate laws and social customs which entrench oppressive systems into place. Call it the atonement for a long history of bad leadership. Leo’s you are tasked with being the Queens of our hearts and clearing the way for justice to prevail, you alone understand that justice is not an action it is a state of being, you are just or you are not with the same finality as being pregnant.
September 16th-October 30th
There are those that say the system is broken and that is why it is failing us. This seems a great deal disingenuous in consideration that historically the system is failing us because it is a flawed system since its inception as it was not designed to address the reality of our pluralistic society and emerged from a time when certain forms of oppression were normalized. The system was bound to fail, because it was designed for only a small fraction of the populace, remember when it was being designed women could not vote, black people were not considered humans, GLBTQ folks were invisible and First Nations people were being stripped of their culture which included their land. Manifest destiny was still a guiding principle in this age and it is why the system so designed took centuries to refine, and yet a reform may not go far enough it may call for a complete re-design of the entire social operating system.
This is where Virgo comes in to play, finely attuned to the cycles of nature and to the concerns of the rank and file, it certainly correlates to the symbol set which has to do with practical concerns of governance and creating a system of operations that efficiently provides for everyone’s particular needs. Virgo is the largest of the zodiacal constellations covering 45 degrees of the ecliptic meaning that statistically more people are born under this sign than any other. Virgo is devoted to designing fair and just systems that serve the masses and is generally opposed to any type of political arrangement that favors or creates elites which control the levers of society, they are in essence the unsung libertarian socialists of the zodiac. A significant portion of people alive today are also in the Pluto in Virgo generation (Born roughly between 1973-1989) and hold the evolutionary responsibility of creating this new system, and enacting the social revolutions of the 1960’s (a period marked by a Uranus-Pluto conjunction that spanned Leo and Virgo and shook up the political establishment) into the policy and political impetus to guide social evolution in decades to come. More personally Virgo is spending November exploring new intellectual horizons and understanding how some of the dis-empowering intersections they have with a failed system can become the impetus for developing a more revolutionary spirit, in these turbulent times we all could use a dose of equanimity to face the chaos of collapsing structures.
October 31st-November 22nd
Civil society in the US has been under siege with the rise of Neoliberal philosophy since 1980 when Reagan declared his Morning in America Again campaign. It has now become the dominant economic model in the global context as even the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank utilize its principles in its aid programs. The problem of course is one that emerges from political economy, the idea that the dominant economics shapes the related policy that defines social customs. Neoliberalism has given unjust practices like quantitative easing, trickle-down economics and austerity. I mention all of this as it is the economic paradigm that decides the social mores and as such ours is decidedly contributing a crisis of inequality which fuels social injustice and enforces a 21st century version of the Caste system in this case we call it socio-economic class, it is also the source of our civil disequilibrium and the progressive breakdown of civil behavior (add in the anonymity of the Internet and then you get extreme online trolling).
This naturally leads to the area of communication a particularly salient issue for Libra which is experiencing a Mercury transit through this sector of the sky. It will be an issue close to you at this time. In particular it will be communications surrounding the principles of justice and how they concur to make a civil society actually civil as there can be no civility without justice. Communicate these issue far and wide, speak them to every voter in this election as it will decide if the US can ever achieve a true civil society. One more thing Libra and this may be a hard one for you, STOP PLAYING NICE!! The other side is not playing fair or nice and neither should you, make concessions to no one and refuse to get along with ideologues whose perspectives are rotten to the core. Justice carries the scales in one hand and a sword in in the other to punish those who would behave unjustly. Justice will not tolerate crypto-fascism, racism, misogyny, homophobia and bigotry and neither should you! If you see anything occur along those lines this month call it out and intervene do not be a bystander.
I picture that wordsmith Libra’s will be particularly on fire this month with Mercury imparting a loquaciousness with words this month. I am reminded of potentially one of the most Libran of the modern nations which was born of revolution and has Mars in Libra The Republic of France. This nation since 1792 has pursued a fairly assertive policy of Laicite’ (and gave us the slogan Liberte’, Egalite’, and Fraternite’) which has ensured that it has been one of the most secular states in the world and one singularly concerned with civil society, it was this framework that created national unity by dissolving the differences between people and creating a strong divide between Church and State. That it may have gone too far in this direction is currently being debated. In a word with a forceful communicative style my fair Libra’s you are asked to be the voice of a restorative justice that will facilitate a civil society.
November 23rd-November 29th
Scorpio is a fair bit grittier than her sister Libra. The Scales are the silk cloth covering the turgid clitoral erection of the Scorpion. Scorpio being acquainted with the darker side of life is well aware of the dynamics of power and what’s more the insidious ways they are abused and use to support dubious ends. Witness the Military industrial complex married to the Financial elites whose members comprise the current Congress, and have authorized a great deal of atrocities in far flung countries in the interest of maintaining their central control and hold on domestic policy that ensures the wealth of the world is funneled into their hands the majority of us be damned. A laundry list of atrocities that have been authorized by Congress: the bombings of Syria, the invasion of Iraq, continued support for the Israeli-Palestine conflict, denialism on Climate Change and obstructing meaningful legislation to address the issue, gerrymandering over authorizing the Affordable Care Act and initiating a month long government shutdown in 2013 over a dispute over the ACA three years after it had been ratified.
These are all examples of an abuse of power and political pandering because the majority members of Congress were not getting their way. If these examples make Scorpio lose all faith in politics than that is good as it is an irredeemable game and Scorpio wants to play a new game called Total Transformation and it begins by completely changing the composition of the Congress and then initiating some new rules for its members to live by, Namely that it will no longer be given any special treatment and benefits and it won’t be a position to stake a career on but instead will be a position of public service as it was intended. No more special medical system or cushy retirement benefits, they can purchase a retirement like every other American and they can also participate in the same medical system so they remember to get down to the business of running a country. Scorpio your job this November is to read the riot act on abuses of power as you see them whether they are seen in the highest offices of the land or in your own neighborhood, I want you to activate your sign’s polarity and yell bullshit when you smell it. In an election cycle where an orangutan tyrant is a serious contender we could use a massive calling out of unbridled power, it’s time to muzzle the dogs.
November 30th-December 17th
Revolutionary politics including philosophies behind Libertarian Socialism, Anarchism, and Marxism have often failed to capture the popular imagination. The possible reason that this may be the case is a philosophical secularism which can sometimes over-extend its reach, a scientism which insists that this is the only true model of reality or way of knowing, and a denial of the numinous or World Spirit, an archetypal realm that seems to pervade the human psyche across space and through time. There are signs that this may be changing as we see the explosion of a panopoly of new approaches to trodden paths of Kropotkin, Bookchin, Goldman, and Chomsky. Three examples highlight this transition into radical politics finally gaining its soul. The work of Rhyd Wildermuth over at the website Gods and Radicals posits that besides the stated secularism, anti-capitalist stance, and anarchist underpinnings that Earth based spirituality and religions can be mutually reinforcing of liberatory principles.
The current dialogue in France between Islam and the policy of Laicite with arguments from both sides that seem to validate the efficacy of secularism and yet question where it may be over-reaching, and that secularism itself could be replacing the idea of a big God with the idea of a big state or society that is a placeholder for God. It certainly is a fascinating idea. The Reclaiming Tradition has been active for forty years uniting activism with a vision of Spirit that acknowledges the benefits of science while deeply questioning prevailing cultural assumptions. The most poignant though has been an article posted on disino.com that outlines the shake up of world views emerging out of the No- DAPL solidarity movements in North Dakota. Many of the anarchist activists have been both intrigued and stunned at the thread of spirituality that runs through these protests emerging from the numinous way of life of the Dakota Sioux tribes whose land they are fighting to protect from desecration. The idea that the land itself is sacred and the water, plants, animals and air that populate are equally so. It is a vision that has been the foundation for countless cultures throughout time and space and continues to inform modern movements as well not to mention speaking to the Jungian idea of the Anima Mundi or world spirit. I mention it Ophiuchus only because it is the modus operundi of your sign, and it is what I am encouraging you to do in November. This is not a justification to go and engage in cultural appropriation and steal from the native tribes of this land without respecting the deep cultural context of said peoples it is instead a prompting to discover your own relationship to the sacred and the unique ways that you walk the sacred ground called Earth. Anyone can cultivate an understanding that the land itself is holy and sacred and there are countless traditions to choose from that will avoid the trap of cultural theft, integrate with radical disciplines and modern worldviews and supports a new vision of economics and governance that acknowledges the intrinsic value of nature. I encourage you to cultivate your unique approach in November.
December 18th-January 18th
Earlier this year the Guardian news service in the UK ran an article called ‘Building our way to hell ‘ which discussed a global gentrification crisis which is a direct result weak government or an outright selling of government to turning a quick profit on global real estate markets. It is causing social dislocation in that it is raising housing prices forcing lower and middle income earners out of the vibrant city centers and placing them on the periphery while luxury towers continue to go up that only the most well-heeled can afford, what’s more is that many of these are being snapped up by absent tenants who live in foreign countries, leading to deserted city centers drained of their culture as rents have spiked so high businesses can no longer afford the lot space to keep themselves open a servicing once vibrant neighborhoods. It is in essence a modern day version of the Enclosures Act which gave rise to Capitalism in medieval Europe. I mention this crisis as Sagittarius is the symbol bearer of a global ethic and experiencing a profound Pluto transit that will last until 2023 is undergoing a sea change in its worldly manifestation.
Globalism was never meant to become neoliberal, Late Capitalist globalization which entrenches the class system and creates these wealth disparities that are destroying the vibrancy of cities and the economic autonomy of sovereign nations throughout the world to say nothing of the impact it is having on ecological systems. Globalism is not the problem it is a beautiful philosophy which states that we can create a unified and harmonized world that respects cultural diversity while also creating opportunities for economic development of local economies a kind of integration between localization, de-centralization and global integration. Instead it became global corporatization. Luckily there are signs that even this is undergoing a necessary existential crisis which of course if what a Pluto transit is all about the utter transformation of a structure by first utterly destroying it and then bringing about a renewal crisis which creates a new form from the liquidated pieces of the old structure. Namely an IMF study which demonstrated that Neoliberalism may have been oversold. Sagittarius, your November task is to figure out what your personal role in the transformation of global culture is, as the bearer of philosophy, religion and foreign affairs this is your natural forte, you are comfortable in a multi-cultural context and recognize that human commonalities can transcend cosmetic differences and the world can integrate while respecting difference and diversity which is the reality of our world while not attaching a value to this difference which leads to systems of oppression.
January 19th-February 15th
Capricorn is highly ambitious and understands social institutions it is largely because its symbols fall under the architecture of society. All of our social institutions are currently failing the majority of us. Our economics is not designed to contend with a world of higher productivity, declining resource bases, technological unemployment, climate change and ecological limits. Our social paradigms are still vastly mired in a swamp of ancient enmity which reinforces the founding oppressions they are based on. Our governments no longer reflect us as they have sold out to a financial oligarchy that corporatizing the entire world and turning it into a glittering wasteland. There seems to be no endgame in sight of the Petroleum Era even as our planet warms to potentially catastrophic concentrations which could end civilization and possibly cause the extinction of our species as well as two-thirds of all the others.
Capricorn has a unique opportunity to turn all of this around as it is the symbol of social infrastructure. It is also preparing for it’s on ramp debut of Pluto into Capricorn in 2023 which will further challenge this sign to step up to the evolutionary catalyst and re-design society. Capricorn is compelled now to become a strange attractor a chaotic perturbation which shifts an integrated system like society into a new phase state. In a word nothing short of a social revolution is being called for. I am calling for Capricorn to spend November figuring out the practicalities of shaking up the status-quo and initiating a long term vision around this subject. I can assure that when 2023 rolls around and you are in the straits of the Pluto transit you won’t have time to strategize so planning ahead is wise and generally one of your strong suits.
February 16th-March 11th
This entire election cycle has been too long and ridiculous for almost all of us. It has demonstrated how much our system of governance is a joke that masquerades as a democracy, when in fact it is nothing more than a plutocracy with a veneer of liberty. Our society is more reminiscent of SPQR than it is of Star Trek. For Aquarius it has been particularly acute, the lack of humanitarian concern that has been expressed domestically in terms of police brutality and the extreme inequality which has driven a wedge into the electorate, as well as in foreign affairs with the bombings of Syria and continued strife in various nations of strategic interest to American elites. What’s more Aquarius being a hyper-logical sign that relies on reason for its raison d’etre, has had to contend with the reality that a nuclear orange demagogue has had a serious crack at the winning the highest office in the land which would set the tone for both domestic and foreign policy creating a possibly Orwellian atmosphere that feels like 1984, Antebellum period, or the gilded age.
Aquarius is being reminded why they spent nights awake reading Bookchin, De Bouvier, Kropotkin, and Wollstonescraft , it is this farce that has convinced them of their avowed anarchist stance. In a word, regardless of how the election turns out a renewed interest in humanitarian concern and the continued need for a progressive political revolution will remain as the status quo cannot continue into perpetuity. It is likely that whoever wins it will either be more of the same or it will be a backsliding into authoritarianism in either case there will be a strong impetus for a continued push in the direction of a human scale and ecologically aware policy framework, there are too many existential crises we face a as a species for business as usual to have any meaning. Nothing short of a reiteration in 21st century terms of the 1960’s social revolutions is being called for, we are on the verge of similar Promethean times and a groundbreaking approach is needed.
March 12th-April 18th
Humanity finds itself in the twilight years of the Age of Pisces, defined as the March equinox beginning in the sign of Pisces. It has been an age when we have collided with monumental violence in our confrontation with the collective factors that divide us, we have witnessed the clash and merging of many civilizations and the rise of universal mystery religions including Christianity, Judaism and Islam, and it also gave birth to the Romantic period, and the Enlightenment which ultimately laid the groundwork for the gradual transition into the Age of Aquarius that will dawn in circa 2597 when the March Equinox begins in the sign of the Water Bearer. As we move along the cusp between ages the assumptions of the Piscean ethic are breaking down, priests are replaced by science, our needs are met through technology as opposed to charity, and our society moves increasingly towards a secularism and a vague agnostic mysticism which could lay the groundwork for future interstellar shamanisms.
I mention this as you dear Pisces are the emblem bearers of this waning age and you still have much influence to impart to the emerging flavor of the Aquarian Aeon. Just as Science has epistemological edges that it cannot go beyond you remind us that even as we move into an age of rationality that there are salient mysteries we will never solve, that even with material abundance there will always be a human need to touch the tap root of the numinous. You are a reminder of this quiet and profound cosmic mystery. As we move towards the converging crises of climate change and the related technological and social upheavals, you remind us of the spiritual foundation that allows us to cultivate an appropriate ecologically sensitive technology one that recognizes the impulse it arises out of (the Promethean impulse to use the fire of the Gods) and reminds us to keep its excesses in check (the wrath of the gods in proliferative destructive technologies like nuclear weapons, internal combustion engines, pollution, waste and extractive machinery which destroys ecosystems). You are reminding us to maintain our hold empathy, and deep compassion so that as we move into an eco-technic Aquarian trans-human age we do not lose our soul in the process. November is the month that invites Pisces to sink deeper into their unknowns and the soft places where they float along the oceans currents.
The November New Moon will sit on the cusp of October and find itself in the sign of the Virgin. This dark moon is a time of reflection as Virgo is the hermetic expression of Mercury in his hermit aspect. It is a moment to reflect and revise as our perceptions are seen through a scanner darkly. Often in the modern world we are all moving too fast to slow down and truly integrate the disparate awareness of our experiences, it is only through a slower and more imaginative perceptual technique that profound insights can emerge, it is through the more unconscious side of dreams and visions that discoveries are made. The gestalt of this other way of knowing has been the genesis of many scientific discoveries including the DNA molecule. Further, in these times of the 24 hour, instant oatmeal society, this method is often overlooked even though it could provide solutions to some of our more salient problems.
The November full moon is a rare cosmic event that occurs only every 70 years. Due to the elliptical orbit of the moon it has two parabolic arcs on its gravitational rotation. The apogee represents the furthest arc line of travel away from earth and the perigree is the closest angle to Earth. Occurring in 70 year cycles when the Sun, Moon and Earth align on the perigree arc of the moon’s orbit it produces what is known as a super-moon or perigree moon, which makes the full moon appear 14% bigger from our vantage point here on Earth. This event will not occur again until November 2034. The Super-moon will fall under the auspices of Aries, and will signify a time when radical new directions can be pursued and any pioneering strategies are initiated at this time with profound result.
The Moon will form a square to Mars in Capricorn creating a possible confusion between instinctual motivation and assertiveness and initiative. To balance the conflict requires aligning intrinsic emotional tides with the action. There is a profound sense bordering on an almost psychological turbulence to initiate something groundbreaking, it can certainly be argued that the political mileu we find ourselves embedded in is in desperate need for change and a radical departure from current trajectories. Perhaps we may already see some civil unrest related to the election results which prove to be stunning no matter who ends up with the presidency, and with any luck a renewed interest in progressive ideals.
That’s a wrap space cadets! I will see you all next month same stellar channel same stellar time.
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