I think it’s fair to say that by birth or
naturalization, Americans have been cornered into a twisted karmic
relationship with Native Americans—those peoples who inhabited these expansive
lands from sea to shining sea long before any of us landed.
Our native populations have been run
over roughshod ever since—robbed of their lands and marginalized in American
society. Despite efforts to “memorialize” them in a national museum and to write
them off with a few meager benefits, however, they are still very present on
the lands that remain to them, and they remain focused on living there in a way
that accords with Nature instead of against it.
As a matter of principle and culture, Native peoples have
been the guardians (if not the source) of whatever earth-consciousness we
possess in our national discourse. Which makes the
attack on native protestors in North Dakota this past week, calling for “No Dakota Access
Pipeline,” especially troubling. This protest aims to protect
the Missouri River (the 1200 mile Dakota Access, or Bakken pipeline would
run beneath it) from oil pollution, only 10 miles from the only water source available
to them, and to protect their sacred burial grounds from destruction.
This months-long protest began on April 1st 2016,
when Standing Rock Sioux tribal elder Ladonna Bravebull Allard founded the
Sacred Stone Camp on her private property, providing space for the gatherings
to come. When police forces from 5 states amassed on October 27th to
drive protestors away from the pipeline construction areas, Allard spoke
out:
"My people stand for the water, and they attack us.
My people stand up for the graves of our people, and they attack us. My people
stand up for our sacred places, and they attack us. My people pray, and they
stop us, dragging us from our prayer, and throw us in the dirt. I know this is
America- this is the history of my people. America has always walked though the
blood of my people.
How can we stand in the face of violence? Because I was
born to this land, because the roots grow out of my feet, because I love this
land and I honor the water. Have we not learned from history? I pray for each
of the people who stand up. We cannot live like this anymore. It has to stop-
my grandchildren have a right to live. The world has a right to live. The
water, the life blood of the world? has a right to live. Mni Wiconi, Water of
Life. Pray for the water, pray for the people. Stop Dakota Access- killer of
the world."
Mythic
underpinnings
Mythology and astrology work like hand-in-glove, so not
surprisingly, there’s an interesting astrological story to tell about all this,
and as we’ll see, it opens in the U.S. Sibly chart’s 8th house.
In his fine study about the mysteries of the 8th
house in astrology, The Gate of Rebirth, Astrologer
Haydn Paul says that “the Mystery of the 8th house concerns the reconciliation
of Self and Others.”
[1]
It is this concern, he suggests, that energizes the Scorpionic “Underworld quest” represented by this house (Scorpio being the natural ruler of the 8th). He cites the Sumerian myth of Ereshkigal, “the Lady of the Great Place Below” and Inanna, “the Queen of Heaven” as the model for this quest:
[1]
It is this concern, he suggests, that energizes the Scorpionic “Underworld quest” represented by this house (Scorpio being the natural ruler of the 8th). He cites the Sumerian myth of Ereshkigal, “the Lady of the Great Place Below” and Inanna, “the Queen of Heaven” as the model for this quest:
Inanna descended into Ereshkigal’s world, and was ‘brought
naked and bowed low’ according to the accepted laws and initiatory rites for
all those wishing to enter the secret kingdom. Inanna’s fine clothing and
regalia, the signs of her power and status, were ritually stripped away as she
progressed gradually losing her dignity, pride, identity, and certainties in
deference to her accepted surrender to something greater than herself. This
divestment was enacted at each of the Seven Gates to the Underworld where sat
Ereshkigal at the center of her Mystery, attended by her servants, the Fates.[2]
Paul reminds us that the realm Below was revered by ancient
matriarchal cultures as the province of the “life-bearing goddess-womb”—a key
reason such cultures were so inextricably bound to Earth-centered wisdom. As the Queen of this Underworld, Ereshkigal
was a “chtonic earth Mother,” ruling over the prosperity and fertility of the
land.
Those who think of the 8th house as the province
of Pluto (ruler of Scorpio) are not mistaken, but that’s not the entire story. Pluto
(Hades in Greek mythology) was originally conceived as ruling the Underworld and
all its resources (fertility, minerals, oil, subterranean waters) hand-in-hand
with Persephone, his feminine “better half.” Scorpio is indeed considered a feminine archetype because of its deep,
chtonic connection with Nature.
As we see above, to be whole, even a “Queen of Heaven” must
eventually submit to the primal power of the Earth. Survival—wholeness—is not,
in the end, a cerebral or abstract (i.e., “heavenly”) phenomenon—it’s gritty
and a gift of the Underworld—where “the roots grow out of [our] feet.” Ancient
cultures—including today’s tribal forebears—knew that reconciling with the
“Others” in their midst was required for harmony in Nature (and by implication,
prosperity for all). They kept up their end of the bargain by ceding vast
tracts of land to their invaders in exchange for treaties (rarely honored by
the U.S. government).
It’s very significant,
then, that this latest abuse of power against the “NoDPL” protests pits
government-backed financial power against survival-minded guardians of water, as well. Scorpio is a fixed water
sign and the importance of water for the sake of survival falls squarely in its
domain.
On the other hand, Pluto and thus, Scorpio, also likes to
turn a corporate profit, so there are deep, dark choices to make. In fact, the balance between financial interests and
environmental health is always a
matter of reconciling two opposing priorities—“Self & Other,” in
psycho-social terms. How does this Underworld quest work on the social level?
In fact, citing renowned astrologer/philosopher, Dane
Rudhyar, Paul seems to be saying that personal and social choices on this
journey are inextricable:
‘It is in terms of eighth house types of experience that a
person has to make perhaps his or her deepest and most vital choices. These
choices will affect not only the individual but society as a whole. In that
sense, the Existential philosophers are right in saying that every man is
responsible for the whole of mankind.’[3]
Perhaps it’s no accident that our Sibly Sun—the luminary
Self of our nation—falls in the social 3rd quadrant of the chart, in
the 8th house? We have, from day one, built this nation on a
tortured, exploitative relationship with Others, from our indigenous tribes to
the unwilling Africans we brought ashore.
Choices were made in regards to both groups, and power
abuses for the sake of profit, land and resources resulted. The 8th
house is also a financial domain, pertaining to the resources one receives from
others—quite appropriate when viewed from the Native perspective. These choices
have been driven by irreconciliable perspectives, it seems: land as Sacred Life
(the Native perspective) v. land as Resource (Government).
In a perverse twist on the Native belief that people are part of nature, not apart from or above nature (the “Sky goddess”
perspective), the slave trade merely extended this “land as Resource” viewpoint
to people—bought and sold as essential tools for extracting wealth from the land.
Whereas reconciling Self and Others creates an indivisible
whole (Inanna utterly surrendered and became one with the Underworld), Scorpio
consolidates (fixed sign) two entities around a power-relationship—again, its
nature is a matter of choice. These choices can be made consciously or
unconsciously—the 8th house is also where we process unconscious
material. On the personal level this process evolves into interpersonal
intimacy; on the social/collective level it often smacks of an imperfect
assimilation with uneven benefits.
Native peoples have been expected to play the surrendering
role of Inanna, but the role wasn’t freely chosen. They became part of something
“greater than themselves” by force, and not much has changed. Astrologically,
it’s high time we get this relationship right, for the sake of our collective
health going forward. To do this, we need to process the unconscious, 8th
house material that seems to be erupting to the surface these days—more on this
to come.
To their everlasting credit, Food & Water Watch sheds
light on what the power relationship is behind this “Underworld quest” by
revealing the financial
interests supporting the pipeline’s construction. Suffice to say here that a
long list of international banks and corporations, another 8th
house-related reality, are involved. Interestingly, the horrendous attack on
pipeline protestors hasn’t been deemed front-page material in the mainstream
media yet, but alternative outlets like NPR, Facebook
Live and Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now podcast
are covering the story to varying degrees.
Sowing karmic blowback
The official reports about militarized police forces
descending upon the protestors on October 27th are horrendous
enough, but some of the earlier personal stories from protestors surfacing on Wikipedia.org are even
more chilling:
As of mid-October there have been over 140 arrests. Some
protesters arrested for minor misdemeanors and taken to the Morton County jail
have reported what they considered harsh and unusual treatment. Sara Jumping
Eagle, a physician on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, was required to remove
all of her clothing and
"squat and cough" when she was arrested for disorderly conduct. LaDonna Brave Bull Allard,
who founded Sacred Stone Camp, said that when her daughter was arrested and
taken into custody she was "strip-searched in front of multiple male
officers, then left for hours in her cell, naked and freezing."
Allard said her daughter was repeatedly asked by guards,
"Who is your mother?" Cody Hall from Cheyenne River Reservation in
South Dakota also reported being strip-searched and required to "squat and
cough". He was held for four days without bail or bond and then charged
with two misdemeanors.[53] Tribal chief David Archambault II was
also strip-searched. When asked if strip searches were common during arrests
for disorderly conduct he replied that he didn't know since he had never before
been arrested. He said that jail officials searched his hair braid for weapons,
which he found to be odd since he doesn't have a very thick braid.[54]
Actress Shailene
Woodley, arrested on October 10 along with 27 others, also said she was
strip-searched, adding, "Never did it cross my mind that while trying to
protect clean water, trying to ensure a future where our children have access
to an element essential for human survival, would I be strip-searched. I was
just shocked."[55]
As with Inanna, Natives are being stripped once again not
just of their regalia, but of their “dignity, pride, identity and certainties…,”
and the U.S. is literally processing its 8th house nightmare on the backs
of its Natives. Scorpio may tolerate power imbalances and demand total
surrender for the good of the collective, but when the purpose served is
antithetical to sustainable life and the respect the Self of this nation owes
its Others, there will be karmic blowback.
Pandora's Box
The official justification for this pipeline is to transport
oil across country “to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.” This phrase, of
course, masks an unsustainable national energy policy, based on destructive extraction
for the sake of outsized financial gain—a real Scorpionic Pandora’s Box. If we
open this box and unleash “all the evils of the world,”
as the myth goes, we run serious risk of environmental disasters that will cost
us far more than the banks plan to make on this pipeline.
But how will we do anything different, if we keep prioritizing the finance sector above the environment? The North Dakota situation represents a much broader imperative, and we might find that Native protestors are doing us a real service. Let’s examine the relevant charts.
But how will we do anything different, if we keep prioritizing the finance sector above the environment? The North Dakota situation represents a much broader imperative, and we might find that Native protestors are doing us a real service. Let’s examine the relevant charts.
Biwheel 1: (inner wheel) Sacred Stone Camp (Dakota
Pipeline protest begins), April 1, 2016, 6:44 a.m. DST (sunrise chart), Standing
Rock Reservation, ND; (outer wheel) NDPipeline Protest
Attack, Octobr 27, 2016, 12:00 p.m. DST, (noon, no exact time known), Cannon
Ball, ND. Tropical Equal houses, True Node.
Protest Camp Sun (Aries) widely conjoins Camp ASC and trines Camp
Mars/Saturn (Sagittarius). An Aries Sun can often be impetuous and
rash; here, these passionate impulses are reined in and placed in a spiritual
context by elder Ladonna Bravebull Allard’s decision (trine to Mars/Saturn) to
establish (ASC) the physical home for the protests to come. Also in
keeping with the Mars/Saturn midpoint, Allard encourages action and models
determination.
Attack Sun-Mercury (Scorpio) trines Attack Neptune (Pisces). We’ve
considered the importance of Scorpio and its mythic Underworld quest is to all
this, so the timing of this attack is no surprise. The Neptune trine reflects
the spiritual idealism expressed in the protest, especially in its concern for the
life force contained in healthy water (Neptune). As we’ll see ahead, the
protest’s founder was motivated by collective, existential (Neptunian)
concerns.
Protest Uranus-Mercury (Aries) conjoins Protest ASC trines Protest
Saturn (Sagittarius) and squares Protest Moon (Capricorn). In founding
this protest, Allard articulates (Mercury-Uranus) the tribe’s
position, goals (Mars/Saturn) and
deep emotional longings (Moon), which are better expressed
in her eloquent words:
Of
the 380 archeological sites that face desecration along the entire pipeline
route, from North Dakota to Illinois, 26 of them are right here at the
confluence of these two rivers. It is a historic trading ground, a place held
sacred not only by the Sioux Nations, but also the Arikara, the Mandan, and the Northern Cheyenne.
The U.S. government is wiping out our most important cultural and spiritual areas. And as it erases our footprint from the world, it erases us as a people. These sites must be protected, or our world will end, it is that simple. Our young people have a right to know who they are. They have a right to language, to culture, to tradition. The way they learn these things is through connection to our lands and our history. If we allow an oil company to dig through and destroy our histories, our ancestors, our hearts and souls as a people, is that not genocide? [5]
The U.S. government is wiping out our most important cultural and spiritual areas. And as it erases our footprint from the world, it erases us as a people. These sites must be protected, or our world will end, it is that simple. Our young people have a right to know who they are. They have a right to language, to culture, to tradition. The way they learn these things is through connection to our lands and our history. If we allow an oil company to dig through and destroy our histories, our ancestors, our hearts and souls as a people, is that not genocide? [5]
The Protest
Moon in earthy Capricorn evokes the Natives’ long,
emotional history of loss as Others in American society, particularly of land
and dignity (Saturn rules Capricorn); elevated in the chart (10th
house), this Moon speaks to the significant timing of this protest effort. There’s an existential threat
contained in the Moon-Uranus square, as well: Not only are the land and its resources at stake (Capricorn),
but everything the land signifies for Native culture and history is in
jeopardy.
More broadly, the
manner in which this protest is resolved will impact the nation’s environmental
future relationship. This, at a time when we really need to be healing our
relationship with the environment for what Natives call “the seven
generations.” Depleting our lands of resources for the sake of investor
interests (Pluto falls in the Sibly 2nd house of finances,
shown in Biwheel 2 below), even if
there’s short-term economic gain to go around, is simply the road to nowhere.
In fact, this road to nowhere is the trap that many developing countries have fallen into as a consequence of
the debts they owe the IMF and World Bank. In astrological terms, an
extraction-based economy is a Faustian bargain with Pluto, and Pluto always
wins in the end.
A Capricorn
Moon seems very fitting here: like the Native protestors, it is brave,
determined and persistent, taking its knocks and getting back up for another
round. Perhaps the square to Protest Uranus-Mercury will stimulate more mainstream
media coverage and support.
Attack Mars-Pluto (Capricorn)
conjoin Protest Moon and square Attack Uranus-Protest Uranus-Mercury-ASC
(Aries). Mainstream
media coverage of the protest and the October 27 police attack has been scant,
but high profile politicians such as Bernie Sanders have come out to support
Native efforts. His efforts are powerfully countered by the corporate and
banking heavyweights (Capricorn Pluto), however, who are
equally determined to fight the protest and clear it away (Capricorn Mars). The
reported brutality of the attack is reflected in this duo’s assault on the Protest
Moon and in the violent means used (square to Uranus in Aries).
Protest Chiron-Venus-South Node
(Pisces) sextile Protest Moon-Attack Mars (Capricorn) and oppose Protest
Jupiter-North Node (Virgo). The opposition aspects to Jupiter are a bit wide here, but the
proximity of the nodal axis suggests they are still important. We can see that,
with the help of significant relationships (Venus), Natives are
revisiting the historical “trail of tears” they’ve walked before (south
node-Chiron), hopefully this time to heal those wounds (Chiron-Venus).
The sextile
aspect speaks to the protest’s opportune timing and to the emotional
support the protestors are receiving from tribes around the nation, from social
media and the environmental movement.
Protest & Attack
Chiron-Venus-South Node squares Protest Saturn-Attack Saturn (Sagittarius);
Protest & Attack Neptunes square Protest Mars-Saturn (Sagittarius) &
Attack Venus-Saturn (Sagittarius). It’s easy to imagine from this complex configuration that both sides of
the Dakota pipeline dispute perceive the other side as a wounding,
chaos-producing force; the odds that these two sides will be able to see
eye-to-eye on anything are very low, but distortion and obfuscation of the
facts are very likely. Attack Venus-Saturn (Sagittarius) also
trine
Protest Sun-Uranus (Aries), so legal assistance for the protestors may
be forthcoming.
Interchart T-square: Attack Jupiter (Libra) disposes the
Sagittarian points and opposes Protest Sun (Aries); this
axis squares
Protest Pluto (Capricorn). Attack Jupiter (in mutual reception with Attack
Venus) also sextiles Protest Mars/Saturn & Attack Mars-Saturn (all
Sagittarius). All of this suggests that the protestors may enjoy some
legal leverage in this situation, although any progress will be a frustrating,
confusing uphill battle. The scope of this challenge will be more clear when we
consider how all this interacts with the Sibly chart. Suffice to say here that this story is likely to touch a national nerve
once it’s more widely known.
Our national 8th house journey
Will this protest be
resolved with anything resembling fairness and respect for Native priorities?
Can the U.S. finally resolve its long, tortured relationship with these Others
living in its midst? In fact, the Sibly Sun (Cancer) has been experiencing
a long transiting opposition from Capricorn Pluto since its first
exact hit in March, 2014. This was the first of five exact hits (2 of them retrograde), so there’s been a deep
fundamental transformation going on in the nation itself, the presidency and in
the “Washington establishment” (this opposition forms a t-square when Sibly
Saturn in Libra is factored in)—a larger story for another day. We’ve
certainly been seeing some of these changes in Election 2016!
The question here is
how the nation’s relationship with its Native population will be impacted by
this transformation. To appreciate the challenge involved, let’s briefly
consider how the Attack chart interacts with the U.S. Sibly chart.
Biwheel #2: (inner wheel) USA
Sibly chart, July 4, 1776, 5:10 p.m. LMT, Philadelphia, PA; (outer
wheel) NDPipeline Protest Attack, Octobr 27, 2016, 12:00 p.m.
DST, (noon, no exact time known), Cannon Ball, ND. Tropical Equal houses, True
Node.
Attack Sun-Mercury (Scorpio) squares Sibly Nodal axis (Leo-Aquarius). It’s
interesting that the Scorpio points also oppose
the Taurus Pluto-Saturn-Uranus conjunction in Taurus featured in
the 1851
Treaty of Traverse des Sioux (chart
not shown) between then-Minnesota territory Sioux Natives and the U.S.
Government, a treaty that Allard says pertains to this new struggle. Westward
expansion into Native lands was in full swing in 1851, and this belligerent
fixed Taurus stellium spoke to the government’s quest for land.
Attack Sun and Mercury opposing these historical points summons
those old ghosts of broken treaties past, while squaring the Sibly
nodal axis; of course, the 1851 Taurus stellium also squared
that same nodal axis, suggesting that the land grabs of the 1850s were
soul-destroying for the nation, despite the excuses we’ve made for them over
the centuries. The current Attack square to our nodal
axis again cuts deep, but it presents an opportunity to right some
wrongs.
Attack Venus-Saturn (Sagittarius) straddles Sibly ASC (Sagittarius),
opposes Sibly Mars/Uranus (midpoint, Gemini). In Jupiter-ruled
Sagittarius, Venus-Saturn at the Sibly ASC evokes a sense that a “just
cause” is being revealed to the nation for liberating action (Mars-Uranus).
That action may be somewhat restrained (Saturn), but with Mars-Uranus
energy afoot, there could be violence nevertheless.
America’s working
class (Sibly 6th house Uranus disposes Aquarius Moon) is
implicated here, and their economic priorities (the price at the gas pump) are
often used to prioritize short-term profits over long-term clean energy plans. The
North Dakota protest raises these issues in a tangential way, but public
reaction to the protest will be colored by economic anxieties that have been
over-inflamed already this election season.
Interchart T-Square: Attack Pluto-Mars (Capricorn) oppose Sibly
Sun (Cancer); this axis squares Sibly Saturn (Libra). The opposition here
cuts across the Sibly 2nd-8th house axis, reflecting that
“Underworld quest” we need to pursue, to resolve the deep disparities between
what we say we’re about (freedom,
equality, opportunity) and the reality on
full display in North Dakota these days. The 2nd-8th is
the axis that rules personal-collective values, and these seem to need some
serious reconsideration.
As mentioned above, Pluto has been transiting the Sibly
chart in this tense relationship for years now, and we have been seeing
the resurgence of troubling forces: neo-Nazi and white supremacist movements
(let’s go back to the “good old days” of segregation and slavery?), not to
mention anti-government militias such as the one acquitted
in Oregon the same day that Natives were attacked in North Dakota. Cosmic
irony is working overtime here.
Certainly connected, if not a direct consequence of all this
negativity, we’ve been living through the most degenerate political times since
the Watergate crisis—and not because
of a batch of misplaced emails. The venomous will to destroy the Other (minorities,
immigrants, the government, opposing candidates, etc.) has characterized this
election year like none I can remember. But what do we do when the Others are also “Us?” Pluto loves to throw down an existential challenge, and these
issues just might be that.
We’ve been down this road in the 1860s, and it wasn’t pretty.
We can’t “free the slaves” again; we can’t give lands that have long been
developed back to the Natives; we can’t put minerals and resources back into
the earth; we can’t undo centuries of discrimination. So where do we go from
here to resolve these karmic relationships and make ourselves whole once again?
As Inanna knew, future prosperity depends upon surrendering differences to this
greater purpose.
For now, the question is, how will this play out in North
Dakota?
Attack Jupiter (Libra) conjoins Sibly Saturn (Libra). As
Jupiter perfects this aspect it also falls into place in the tense T-square
just discussed above. This is likely to raise the stakes for all players in the
North Dakota dilemma—encouraging the prevailing power structures (Saturn-Pluto)
and financial interests (Pluto opposed Sibly Sun). Jupiter will
be transiting square Sibly Pluto (Capricorn) for much of the coming year,
opposing Uranus (Aries), however, and this could open space for a deeper
social awareness of needed changes and a path to get there.
This transit could be helpful, but true resolution of this
dilemma may have to wait for transiting Pluto’s return to Sibly
Pluto in early 2022. The return of all these repressed Other-related
issues suggests that change will be forced upon us whether we’re ready or not.
The choices (as with all Underworld quests) will probably range between a
deeply cathartic resolution (supporting wholeness), or a karmic comeuppance
(supporting division). Who, or what sets the priorities of this nation,
and do those priorities serve the right purposes? We will need to resolve this
question before our relationships with Others can be resolved.
A sobering footnote
One last thought about the Plutonian 8th house
“quest” we are caught up in as Americans. Our collective Cancer 8th
is ruled by the Sibly Moon in Aquarius, so our current dis-ease with each other
always has the potential to spill over into serious disruption. Happily, Jupiter
will be transiting trine that Moon for most of the
coming year, but it will also oppose transiting Uranus
in Aries, itself sextile Sibly Moon, so while the
consciousness-raising efforts of Jupiter-Uranus may be positive, the
potential for a volatile backlash (Uranus in Mars-ruled Aries) will
remain.
Unfortunately, we may see more violence out of North Dakota
before this is over. I hope I’m wrong, but from what I’ve seen thus far, the
gathered police forces really seemed to relish what they were doing on October
27th. An NPR radio journalist reported the eerie scene of police choppers
chasing down Indians on horseback, like something out of another century.
Perhaps that’s the problem here—Natives have been consigned to the dustbin of
our collective memory, and they are not taken seriously as stakeholders in
American democracy. Trouble is, they are not frozen in amber somewhere; their
needs are as present today as anybody’s.
That same NPR program pointed out that the Sioux tribe
wasn’t even consulted when the pipeline project was planned; its route through
their watershed and ancient burial grounds wasn’t considered worthy of
discussion. The Natives simply had no voice, but they want one now, and they don’t
show signs of simply disappearing into the landscape again with no satisfaction. They fully embrace their role as the guardians of the environment, and it’s high time to make our collective peace
with them.
Raye
Robertson is a practicing astrologer, writer and former university English
instructor. A graduate of the Faculty of Astrological Studies (U.K.), Raye
focuses on mundane, collective-oriented astrology, with a particular interest
in current affairs, culture and media, the astrology of generations, and public
concerns such as education and health. Several of her articles on these topics
have been featured in The Mountain Astrologer and other publications over the
years. Raye can be contacted by comment here, or
at: robertsonraye@gmail.com.
© Raye Robertson 2016. All
rights reserved.