Power is one of
the most difficult dynamics to define, but as the saying goes, “we know it when
we see it.” Or, in the case of disempowered
people, they know it when they feel
it in their bones.
That’s no exaggeration—power
over a target rival (as in competitive sports) is experienced as a physical
rush of hormonal satisfaction. “To the victor go the spoils,” the saying goes. We
certainly saw this a few nights ago with the Chicago Cubs’ long-overdue, hard-fought
World Series victory. I grew up in Chicago, so Go Cubbies!
On the other, disempowered
side, the target rival experiences a cellular-level, deadening sense of loss. They
did themselves very proud, but we have to imagine that the Cleveland Indians still
experienced this deadening feeling at the end of the last series game. It just
goes with the territory, but they’ll bounce back—they’re a world class team.
One reason Cleveland can be
so resilient is that the World Series is a healthy
rivalry, played according to the agreed-upon rules of major league baseball—what
astrology would call the Saturnian dimension of competition. If
the rules didn’t matter and some type of force was used to influence the game,
this would threaten the integrity of the game.
Integrity depends upon
internal cohesion—unity between what we believe, say and do, between what the
rules say and how the game is played and adjudicated. Obviously, it’s a complex phenomenon subject
to many corrupting influences. One potentially corrupting influence is what we
might call thug power, a type of
power that recognizes no rules, operating on the premise that “might makes
right.”
This type of power is
closely-related to megalomania—a grossly overblown sense of one’s own
importance and absolute entitlement. This extreme, arrogant or “puffed up” type
of power-over evokes Jupiter in combination with Pluto. The bigger
(Jupiter) the bullies, the more fear (Pluto) they inspire, the more they push
around and dominate (Pluto) their target rivals, at least temporarily. This
“bigness” (the province of Jupiter) manifests in many ways:
·
Physical. Size, weight
or fitness and training discrepancies between rivals (pitting a flyweight boxer
against a heavyweight, or a white belt in Karate against a black belt).
·
Financial. Wealth creates
power discrepancies between rivals that can be allowed to determine outcomes.
Our “too-big-to-fail” Wall Street finance sector certainly fits this profile.
·
Information and Media. Abuse or misuse of facts and information (with enough money and
disregard for libel and defamation laws, you can create your own reality, it
seems). Neptunian deception/disinformation is often involved here—i.e, enabling
the epidemic of “fake news” propagated on the Internet to tear rivals down. This
attempt to make up the facts as we go along extends to the election process
itself this year; voter suppression attempts seek to challenge the facts of
another’s life (i.e., eligibility to vote).
·
Emotion. Sentiment is a powerful force, and whether it’s
reality-based or not, it can be used to hijack any situation and prejudice a
competitive outcome. Volumes could be written about this topic!
·
Authority imbalances. The
many manifestations of “I’m in charge here, so I am empowered to abuse you.” With
Jupiter and Pluto, the imbalances are often more perceived (or culturally and ideologically-rooted)
than real because real laws are ruled by Saturn. Such laws are often needed to rein
in problems caused by the more perceived ones (domestic abuse, etc.).
True authority imbalances do
exist, of course, but they are also more about Saturn—and Pluto, when tyranny, dictatorship
and/or corruption are involved. For instance, when the FBI throws its heavy
authoritative voice behind one candidate or the other, we’re in Saturn-Pluto
territory. The Trump campaign’s suspected use of corrupt FBI agents from the New York field office,
however, is a matter of Jupiter-Pluto thug power.
When Vladimir
Putin works to undermine our national election
to destabilize NATO for his own purposes, that’s also thug power. His chart is
heavily-driven by Jupiter-Pluto, with a staunch Taurus Jupiter ruling his
Sagittarius ASC from his 6th, square equally fixed 9th
house Leo Pluto. His reported mastery of KGB-type disinformation techniques is
reflected in that same Jupiter’s opposition to 12th house Scorpio
Venus, disposing his amazing Libra MC-Sun-Saturn-Neptune-Mercury stellium.
Putin’s Pluto sextiles his Mercury-Neptune conjunction, so we shouldn’t be
surprised at reports of information distortion for the sake of power. His chart
is featured below.
Primal arrogance
The “arrogance of
power”—arrogant meaning "assuming, overbearing, insolent"—is commonly associated with the Jupiter-Pluto combination
because thugs truly assume the rules
don’t apply to them.
With this type of power the rules
and the limits of fair play (which Jupiter is not particularly worried about) are
even further undermined by the 500-lb. astrological gorilla in the room, Pluto;
instead, Pluto’s Machiavellian (the “ends justify the means”) power is expanded
and projected outward with Jupiter’s influence.
Many summarize Pluto’s
power with “sex, death and taxes”—primal aspects of the human condition open to
both light and dark uses. Unfortunately, this catchy-sounding list trivializes
Pluto’s very real collective, existential threat—nuclear power.
Pluto provides a primal,
collective reserve of power—akin to the life
force—a force that instills all living beings with the gut-level
reassurance that our lives are part of Nature and its eternal cycle of birth,
death and rebirth/regeneration.
Depending upon our natal,
transiting and/or progressed relationship with this energy, Pluto also endows
us with varying degrees of survival
anxiety. For this reason, Pluto (with the Moon) is said to rule the human
brain’s so-called “reptilian” amygdala (located near the brain’s most primitive
stem area).
This primitive area governs
the “fight or flight” instinct that allowed the earliest humans to flee from
prowling predators on the savannah. This adaptive instinct sends adrenalin
coursing through homo-sapien systems, enabling them to flee or fight much more
effectively.
In the process, however, this
adrenalin rush temporarily shuts down more rational brain centers—simply put,
when we’re experiencing survival anxiety, we don’t think clearly. This is super-relevant today, with conspiracy
theory-fueled anxieties roiling so many: the threats don’t even need to be real, they only need to be perceived. Jupiter in aspect to Pluto
greatly inflates such real or
perceived threats, which may be manipulated to enhance whatever unconscious anxieties (Pluto) we are
experiencing. If these anxieties are triggered by deceptive fear-mongering (Pluto),
Jupiter
will enhance the dread and make it more conscious.
The media industry itself
seems to be conscious of this problem these days. MoneyCNN.com even
published a guide for dealing with “fake news”—there are lots of forces out
there hoping to profit from investor panic in the wake of this election, and
they’re flooding the Internet with disinformation. Clearly, Neptune
plays a role in all this—a story for another day—but the raw power at stake in these
manipulative dynamics is music to Pluto’s ears.
While Jupiter makes us more
conscious of our fears, it also prompts us to search for their meaning so we can formulate a logical
response. This election has shown that many people are ill-at-ease with
society’s changing demographics, but the vast majority deals with that reality
without existential panic. Those who feel their very survival (Pluto)
is at stake in racial identity, however—and that someone “out there” has thus
stolen what belongs to them—are caught up in the dark side of Jupiter-Pluto.
The overblown sense of
entitlement this duo promotes is difficult to square with anything but total success (a highly subjective
measure that says life is meeting/exceeding our expectations) and control of
one’s environment. This is difficult for those with race-based survival issues:
an Other’s success feels like a big loss to Self, and there’s just so much loss
a person can handle before imploding into anger and hatred. We can only imagine
what the ultimate cost of this “zero-sum” mentality is to affected individuals
and to society itself.
The Jupiter-Pluto cycle in history
History holds horrific
examples of this combination’s roughly 12.5 year cycle at work: renowned
mundane astrologer Andre Barbault discusses highlights from the cycles between
1906 and 1994 in his recently translated Planetary
Cycles: Mundane Astrology[1],
including the following partial list:
·
WWI and what
Barbault calls the “passing of the great families” (Jupiter-Pluto in Cancer) in
its aftermath (1918 cycle);
·
Hitler’s rise and
reign in Germany (1918 and 1931, both Cancer cycles;
·
the building of
atomic bombs and the bombing of Hiroshima (1943 Leo cycle);
·
the expansion of the
Soviet Union (1955 Leo cycle), and
·
a Libyan crisis
(Gaddafi assumes power), environmental disasters, and early terrorism (1968
Virgo cycle). We can look to the 1955 and 1968 cycles for insight into the
Vietnam War, as well.
As with all planetary cycles,
however, this Jupiter-Pluto duo can be channeled into both dark and light purposes—Barbault
also cites the rise and work of Mahatma Gandhi (born under the 1869
Jupiter-Pluto conjunction) and the election of Nelson Mandela (1994 cycle). These
energies provide the ideological clout, expansive self-confidence (Jupiter)
and the overbearing will-to-power (Pluto) for either good or evil.
Choosing between these
alternative expressions is more complicated than it looks, however. When
Jupiter and Pluto are in stressful aspect, compulsions and unresolved karmic
issues can crowd everything else out (literally, be “overblown”) unless they
are constructively resolved. Income inequality and poverty—fueled by
Jupiter-Pluto greed (a stubborn compulsion of our system)—gives rise to black
markets, drug trafficking and gangster-style crime. Race-based hatred and
xenophobia spikes during these same times—the cycle is as predictable as rain.
Even so, it’s good to know
that we can influence how these
energies play out—we are not helpless
in the face of this power. We need to understand its logic, however, to
consciously direct how it is channeled.
Some better uses of Jupiter-Pluto
It’s a good time to explore
the more positive uses of these energies now, since we’re already experiencing
a Jupiter-Pluto
square (give or take an 8° orb) that will last for
most of the coming year. The year ahead is definitely looking like a volatile
time, so any positive moves will be welcome.
Let’s consider the same list offered
above from this more positive perspective. The various categories of power use
overlap in important ways, of course, as we’ll see:
·
Physical. The relative
size of a contender can also imply strength
in numbers—democracy is built upon this kind of strength—the masses who
feel deeply enough about the issues to vote, and upon the important tradition
of majority rule. Jupiter’s heft and optimism, paired with Pluto’s will to
succeed are a real blessing here. Nothing scares a tyrant like an educated (Jupiter),
united public (Pluto).
·
Financial. Our
financial system impacts everything from how we put food on the table to how livable
this planet will be for our children and grandchildren. Again, the rules
driving this sector are driven by our politics, and are subject to democratic
change. Jupiter’s ideological weight is a factor here, but ideologies,
not to mention Pluto’s survival anxieties, morph and modulate over time.
This year it seems that these
energies (along with other forces) have enabled the growth of populist anxiety;
historically, such movements have brought
change to both Washington and Wall Street, and they can be positive, when
directed in a balanced, thoughtful way. In fact, we’ve seen changing attitudes in
not just our politics, but in the unexpected comeback of Hamiltonian economics,
brought to prominence by a chorus of economists’ voices, and by one powerful,
even “too big to fail” play on Broadway.
·
Information and Media. Here’s where Saturnian discipline and laws could
be used to keep our public discourse more grounded in reality. Exaggerated
conspiracy theories and large-scale manipulations of the truth (Jupiter-Pluto)
should not be allowed to overwhelm our press. Fact-checking is helpful; taking responsibility for examining all the facts and the credibility of
sources is helpful; legal penalties
that punish the most egregious abuses of First Amendment rights (slander,
defamation, etc.) would be helpful.
Bill Maher asked President
Obama in a recent interview if it wasn’t time to re-consider the media industry’s
profit motive (Jupiter-Pluto), which he sees as a big part of the problem. Obama
acknowledged there’s room for change.
The Supreme Court (Saturn-Jupiter-Pluto)
plays an important role here; so many of these issues are affected by
technological development and our legal system’s inability to keep up with it,
and all of this is a matter of democratic priorities.
·
Emotion. It’s hard to legislate or restrain emotion, but our
emotional natures can be educated to accept some realities with equanimity and
to distinguish between levels of threat. Cynicism
is an especially destructive emotion that has been nurtured and played like a
piano this election year. We can
learn to pick up on this emotional manipulation (Pluto) when we see and hear
it—a bit of critical thinking (Mercury-Saturn-Jupiter) works
wonders. Not every liberal is bound
to do the bidding of the “anti-Christ,” Nancy Pelosi…not every conservative is a Neo-Nazi racist who wants to deport
millions of people…the absurdities never end.
· Authority imbalances. IMHO,
we Americans need to examine our true inner feelings about authority to make
more positive use of Jupiter-Pluto here. One British commentator suggested that
we may have a case of “monarch-envy,” and he may have been on to something. Jupiter
and Pluto
often figure prominently in the natal charts of monarchs: King George III of
England (the King we revolted against) had a wide Jupiter-Pluto opposition;
George VI had Jupiter sextile Pluto, square Venus and trine Mars; Edward VIII
had a wide Jupiter-Pluto conjunction. Monarchs were traditionally viewed as
emissaries of God—the seat of godly authority over the people, so having a
“larger than life” Jupiter-Pluto disposition helps.
So, do we have a case of “monarch-envy?”
That might explain our flirtation with a “strong man” type such as Donald Trump.
Do we—with our love of celebrities and TV/Hollywood “royalty”—actually have a
repressed desire for an uber-patriarchal, tough-talking leader to tell us what
to do and what to think? It certainly shows in the way we glorify thugs on the
big screen in the Gangster genre (an American invention).
For that matter, our CSI-type
dramas seem deeply nostalgic for Wild West-style law, when lawmen (the
mythologized “Sheriff”) were empowered to use whatever intrusive means they
needed to catch the bad guys and “string ‘em up,” trial or no trial. Is that
the mythical period Trump is evoking with “make America great again?”
Democracy is a big responsibility, and maybe a lot of
us would rather capitulate and try something different. This election has lured
a whole conga line of skeletons out of our national closet, so perhaps one more
is no surprise. Coming to grips with what healthy authority really means within
a democracy would be a great use of Jupiter-Pluto.
Jupiter-Pluto & Rosie the Riveter: We Can Do It!
One memorable, positive use of the Jupiter-Pluto cycle
was in 1943, in the midst of the Nazi menace and the world at war. Possibly to
lighten up his list of horrors from that period, Barbault mentions the iconic “We Can Do It!” poster[2],
published on the cover of the Saturday
Evening Post on May 29, 1943. It is described as an “American wartime
propaganda poster,” but it aimed to boost morale in the women keeping the
war-time factories humming as “Rosie the Riveters.” This confident, powerful
image—a beautiful expression of Jupiter-Pluto at its best—is known worldwide
and has come to represent the feminist movement in general.
 |
| J. Howard Miller's "We Can Do It!" poster from 1943 |
With all this as our context,
let’s consider a few highlights from “Rosie’s” birthchart against the
Jupiter-Pluto cycle’s chart that year. The poster was released 64 days before
the cycle’s first conjunction on August 1, 1943. We could simply look at the
poster through the lens of the cycle chart alone—Barbault seems to have done
that—but some details emerge when we look at both together that will add to the
conversation.
Biwheel #1: (inner wheel) "We Can Do It!" Poster, May 29, 1943, 12:00 p.m. WT (no exact time known), Indianapolis, IN; (outer wheel) Jupiter-Pluto Cycle 1943, August 1, 1943, 3:16:43 a.m. WT, Washington, DC. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node.
“We Can” (WC)
Venus conjoins Jupiter (both Cancer); WC Venus sextiles Cycle Venus (Virgo) and
Cycle Mars (Taurus). Clearly, these
charts together are about the strength of women (Venus) working together (Jupiter’s
strength in numbers) to support their soldiers (Cycle Mars and WC
Mars in Aries) overseas and protect their families (Cancer
Jupiter). This cooperative effort is also displayed by the Cycle
Venus-Cycle Mars (Aries) trine. Patriotism is clearly on display in the
WC
chart with its spirited Cancer emphasis.
The poster pictures a strong,
but clearly well-groomed, feminine woman, dressed in a typical factory uniform
and a sassy polka-dotted red bandana, flexing her biceps. The image depicts a lively sense
of possibility, designed to convince women that they could take on the tough,
war-time jobs that required muscle—again,
evoking that tough Aries Mars.
The unusual nature of this
image for that time is reflected in the WC Sun-Uranus conjunction (Gemini), sextile
WC Pluto (Leo), with Uranus also sextile WC Mars (Aries).
WC Jupiter and WC
Pluto fall within 12 degrees of
completing their 1931 Cancer cycle here—well within the final “balsamic” phase
of the cycle. In keeping with that phase, these energies are shedding the outworn
baggage they picked up during those horrendous years of Depression and building
war, and they are anticipating new expressions of power—in this case, empowered
women as a force for moving the
country forward. It’s certainly no
surprise that this poster has endured as the
iconic symbol of American feminism.
Today’s final square
Let’s now fast-forward to
November, 2016. The December 2007 Jupiter-Pluto cycle is in its final square
phase and abuses of power abound. As mentioned earlier, FBI Director
James Comey inserted himself into the election in an unprecedented and damaging
way, and whether he intended it or not, his actions were twisted for political
purposes. That’s the dark side of this cycle in a nutshell; interestingly, Comey’s Sun
(Sagittarius) widely conjoins 2007 Jupiter-Pluto (Sagittarius), so he appears
fully engaged with the “Wild West” power dynamics of our times.
The 2016 election primary
season unfolded during the final trine of this cycle; it’s ending on
the rockier, square note, with pitched battles filling the final moments and
probably beyond. Both candidates, of course, have deployed the power of Jupiter-Pluto
throughout the campaign—Trump with his “I alone can fix America” message; Clinton with her “Stronger Together” theme. It’s now up to the
voters to choose which version of power they want to see in the White House.
Let’s all exercise our
Jupiter-Pluto power and vote!!
