"It’s as though the Cosmos would like us to make the most of this rare gift while we can."
I have to begin this post with a bit of shameless self-promotion: An article I wrote
months prior to election 2016, entitled “Silver Lining in Aquarius: Engineering
the Future with the 2020 Jupiter-Saturn Cycle,” is now available in the
April/May 2017 issue of The Mountain
Astrologer and can be accessed by online subscribers at this
link.
I chose what I think is a cautiously optimistic approach to
this article because I really do believe that the new Jupiter-Saturn cycle will
provide great opportunities if we play our cards right. Perhaps the best
summary I can offer is to quote myself (again, shamelessly):
“The conscious
engineering of a social order that fits our collective needs for the coming
generations will be the whole point of this cycle. In fact, an Aquarius cycle
seems to be a rare gift—Jupiter and Saturn last launched their cycle there in 1405, and it won’t happen again until 2199! Not only that, but we’ll get the
benefit of the entire sign with the
cycle launching at 0°+.
It’s as though the Cosmos would like us to make the most of this rare gift
while we can.”
I began this article by considering the two “stories” that
economist/author David Korten[1]
suggests our globalized world is forever
struggling to reconcile: the “Sacred Money & Markets” story, and the
“Sacred Life & Living Earth” story. I suggested that our choice of
narratives in 2020, if not before, would reverberate long into the future: do
we serve stockholder interests at the expense of communities, health and the
environment?
Or do we realign our priorities and economy around tackling the
long-term threats to our planet, to human wellbeing, and so on?
Bottom line, which story would support the most constructive
use of this “rare gift” of the Cosmos?
To think that we will all magically coalesce around a new
way of doing things in 2020 is naïve, of course, but an Aquarius cycle is not
just potentially disruptive (ruled by Uranus), it’s aspirational and
pragmatic, grounded in what Marilyn Ferguson calls “radical common sense.”
No
magic wand, but a willingness to take risks for the sake of the greater good. In
his new book entitled The Complacent
Class, George Mason University economics chair Tyler Cowan says it’s high
time Americans return to their innovative, risk-taking roots and get over what
he calls “the self-defeating quest for the American Dream.”
Cowan has an excellent point when he says that we’ve become
sluggish, risk-averse, self-protective people. Astrologically, I’d say he’s fairly "tuned in"—as we’ll see, there are several factors at work that
could be creating this heavy, sluggish effect. Hopefully, the 2020 Aquarius
cycle (Jupiter-Saturn) will jerk our collective senses out of the cosmic
muck.
Suffice to say here, there’s a lot at stake in the coming 4 years, as we inch our way towards that
new Aquarius cycle on the horizon. In fact, these 4 years are dotted with major
transits and ingresses, including new Saturn-Pluto and Jupiter-Pluto
cycles launching in Capricorn, complemented by Uranus moving into earthy
Taurus. The new Aquarius cycle will thus be disposed by an earthy Uranus!
In fact, “Silver Linings…” discusses all this as a potential
“earth-centered revolution in an air sign,” and this interesting mix is the
main reason I hold out hope for that period of time, despite our current
political reality. Could that period still support that unfortunate “Sacred
Markets & Money” narrative? Clearly, it could (remember, there are no magic
wands here), and to some extent, it probably will, but digging into the astrology
ahead suggested to me that there’s hope for a wave of progress on the horizon.
I invite you to read the entire article;
your thoughts and observations are always welcome!
Winding down, clearing
the way
As for this post, I wanted to look back a bit, to better
understand some particulars about the coming years. A new round of chaos broke
out this weekend in Washington with Trump’s Tweetstorm
accusing former President Obama of “tapping [Trump’s] wires,” and the fallout
of this accusation is already threatening to further undermine our national
institutions (Justice Department, FBI, the Executive Office, Congress, and
probably more).
Rather than analyze a chart from that Tweetstorm, however, I
think we need to take a long view of this dark, evolving situation. It’s unprecedented
in our own history—even the Watergate era is starting to look more enlightened—but
other parts of the world have seen the Plutonian winding down process we are
facing.
In our case, the process—reflected in Pluto’s transiting return
to its exact position in our radix Sibly chart on February 20, 2022—is unfolding
according to schedule and creating the overarching context for a lot of the
darkness we’re seeing in Washington. Importantly, Pluto’s return will
happen in synch with Neptune’s transiting half-return (opposition) to its Sibly
position, so the “muck” our collective feet are stuck in has credentials. Please
see the following posts for more detail on all this: October
10, 2015, October
13, 2015, October
16, 2015.
While I stand by my optimistic assessment that there is a “silver
lining” out there in the not-too-distant future, this Pluto return also promises
some turbulence and darkness before we get there. Nations—like any organic
entity—have life cycles that wind down into dissolution, death, regeneration
and rebirth. Empires, nations, federations (i.e., the Soviet Union) and regimes
have dissolved, been reconfigured and reborn throughout history, and the
process (while painful at the time) is what drives the long-term evolution of human
societies and civilizations.
This process allows a clearing out of old, outworn energies
and a resurgence of new energy and spirit. New beginnings can be rocky (as ours
was in the 1780s), but time ultimately tells the story. Does anyone really
believe the U.S. is immune to this process?
Into the labyrinth
Once we accept that there is a “long game” unfolding over
time, and that everything more immediate is a part of that game, perhaps we can
fine-tune our sense of these coming years. In this post, we’ll therefore consider
the 2017 Aries ingress (the Solar new year), which is close upon us, keeping the
impending Sibly Pluto Return in our sights.
Set for Washington, D.C., this chart can be used to predict
the broad outlines of life in these United States for the coming year—including
the ongoing drama in the White House. According to Mundane Astrology, Sun-Aries
Point contacts also represent conditions concerning public figures and
leaders, so there’s plenty to explore here.[2]
Chart #1: 2017
Aries Ingress, March 20, 2017, 6:16:48 a.m. DST, Washington, D.C. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node.
1st house Aries Point (Sun) widely conjoins 2nd
house Venus (Aries), squares Moon-Saturn (Sagittarius) and quincunxes No. Node
(Virgo). Just as with a personal solar return, the placement of the Sun
here lends a theme to the coming year. A 1st house Sun
suggests a strong focus on identity and new beginnings; since this Sun
rules the Leo 6th house, it appears that our national self-concept
will be heavily influenced (if not challenged) by healthcare, military and
jobs-related issues.
This is no surprise, given Trump’s agenda, but the Sun’s
dissociate (out-of-sign) square to Sagittarius Moon-Saturn suggests
that there will also be controversies, obstacles and probably lots of information leaking going on
(these points are conjunct the “whistle-blowing” Galactic Center). The
Executive’s (Sun) ability to control this phenomenon will be challenged.
If set against the U.S. Sibly chart (not shown), the Sun-No.
Node quincunx falls over our national 4th (Sun)
and 9th (Node) houses—awkward, frustrating (quincunx) international
influence (9th) over our domestic “heartland” and character as a
nation (4th) is possible. We’ll discuss more connections between
these charts ahead.
Returning to the Ingress chart, its 9th house
cusp is Scorpio, co-ruled by Taurus Mars (disposing the Aries
Sun) and Capricorn Pluto (disposed by Sagittarius Saturn).
Messy foreign entanglements over resources and financial deals are likely featured
in the coming year, and surprising alliances could emerge between normally-opposed
players (Russia and the U.S.?). There could also be a tendency to say one thing
and do another (3rd-9th communications axis).
The Sun’s wide conjunction to Aries
Venus, and Venus’s conjunction, in turn, with Aries Mercury suggests
that the airwaves will be filled with aggressive messaging, and a
resource-related agenda will probably drive the messaging (2nd house
planets). Venus disposes 8th house Libra Jupiter,
reinforcing this drive and perhaps some resource-based relationships. This seems
likely to explain Trump’s choice of former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson for our
State Department.
Neptune rises in Pisces, conjunct ASC and ruling the chart. A
mutable, unstable year seems to lie ahead, continuing many of the same issues
we’ve experienced this past year. Sorting through what’s true and what’s “fake
news” will continue to be a challenge, and although foundations have been
pulled out from under many government agencies, etc., such organizations may be
more resilient than they might seem since Saturn is no longer square Neptune.
Even so, change will still be the order of the day—see below for Saturn’s
trine to Uranus.
Neptune and Pluto are thought to co-rule
subterranean resources such as oil and coal; with a strong Neptune rising here and Pluto
strongly placed in the 11th, it’s likely that Trump’s agenda for
unleashing exploitation of these resources will proceed. As we’ll see in the
next aspect described below, there will be pushback on this agenda, however the
corporate profit motive (Pluto) will probably have the upper
hand.
Neptune does have its lighter side, of course, and we should
probably be grateful that it has only one mildly adverse aspect here, a
semi-sextile from Aries Mercury. Keeping a clear mind and getting a straight
story will be challenges, as they’ve been this year.
On that lighter note, we may see an outpouring of creative
energy this coming year. Those in the arts may take an important leading role
in our collective consciousness (and the pushback referred to above)—it will be
interesting to see how that manifests.
Cardinal Grand-Square: Uranus-Eris[3]
(Aries) opposes Jupiter (Libra); this axis squares Vesta (Cancer) opposite
Pluto (Capricorn). We’ve seen this movie before: here, however, the
intense competition, stress and potential volatility (Uranus-Eris) generated
over economic and resource-related issues clearly impacts the “home fires” of Vesta.
This hints that “Bread & Butter” issues could suffer with the economic
power plays that go on: again, with Pluto elevated, the corporate agenda is
likely to prevail.
This isn’t terribly surprising with this heavy cardinal
energy and a Capricorn Pluto, but as anyone who took a hit
during the 2007-08 Wall Street meltdown knows, capitalism is given to
excessive, parasitic behavior, and Trump wants to roll back regulations on
those excessive behaviors once again. This devolution fits the Capricorn Pluto
return process we’re engaged in, and unfortunately, the Wall Street foxes are in
charge of our economic hen house at the moment.
For those watching the prospects for tax reform, it does
appear that the wealthy (Pluto) will benefit over the rest of
us (Vesta),
but not without some fireworks. Those concerned with paying down our national
debt (Pluto) are probably not going to like what lies ahead.
Land could figure
into some of the power plays indicated in this ingress chart (privatization of
federal lands?), with Mars in the Taurus 3rd
house. Agricultural Ceres’ presence in this same house suggests that farms and
farmers will be impacted, which makes sense—their dependence on migrant labor
during harvests could become a major issue if Trump’s immigrant deportation plans
proceed.
Saturn-Moon (Sagittarius) square Chiron-Pallas (Pisces). The Saturn-Chiron
cycle tends to hit intense points during unstable, volatile times—especially
when those points fall in mutable signs.
The U.S. Civil War launched with a mutable opposition (Virgo-Pisces); the
chaotic period immediately preceding WWI featured the square (Gemini-Pisces);
the Vietnam War evolved into a major quagmire under a Pisces Saturn-Chiron
conjunction (1966-67). Families—and particularly children—are wounded (Chiron) when parents (Saturn)
are lost to war; wounds suffered in “absent Father” families are
well-documented.
Other wars have featured tense cardinal aspects between these wounding Saturn-Chiron energies: WWII
saw a Cancer-Libra square; the 1991 Gulf War launched under a Capricorn-Cancer
opposition; the 2003 Iraq invasion happened during a mutable Saturn-Pluto
opposition (Gemini-Sagittarius), but Saturn quickly moved into a
Cancer-Capricorn opposition with Chiron. Saturn will be entering
Capricorn again this coming December, but will continue its square with Chiron
into that period; continued tension-building instability is to be expected.
There also seems to be a connection between the Saturn-Chiron
cycle and epidemics, as well as the widespread use and abuse of drugs, although
Neptune
is usually lurking in the background during these periods, as well. Quite
possibly, today’s U.S. epidemic in opioid addiction is related to the current
mutable cycle, especially with Neptune disposing Pisces Chiron.
Families suffer doubly with this type of epidemic—in the most severe cases,
addiction “removes” a parent from a child as painfully as war does.
“Wounded justice” is reflected when we add Pallas
into this stressful mutable square, suggesting that we’re likely to see
more abuses of authority ahead. Concerns about police brutality and injustice
in the courts, a “police state” mentality emerging around immigrant issues, or
even abuses of power in the top ranks of government are possible here.
Positively, whistle-blowing may continue to challenge such abuses, but whistle-blowers will probably experience their own challenges. The whole outpouring of whistleblowing is driven by the next set of aspects.
Positively, whistle-blowing may continue to challenge such abuses, but whistle-blowers will probably experience their own challenges. The whole outpouring of whistleblowing is driven by the next set of aspects.
Uranus-Eris (Aries) trine Saturn-Moon-Galactic Center (Sagittarius). If
our heads aren’t already spinning with revelations in the news, this aspect
assures that there will be plenty more potentially volatile surprises ahead. As
we saw with the cardinal grand square discussed above, securing resources (belonging
to Others, even) will be a key focus, and Uranus points to possible shocking, violent
means for doing so.
Saturn is concerned with maintaining integrity in all its
forms, from structural to justice-related. Saturn prefers facts to misinformation,
disinformation and outright fabrications (Neptune), so the GC connection
here suggests that more truth-seeking revelations are on the horizon.
It should be said here that Saturn isn’t particularly strong in Jupiter-ruled Sagittarius, so that desirable integrity remains vulnerable.
“Follow the money” will continue to be good advice. Picking
our fights around opportunities to grab resources (as Trump said about Iraq,
“maybe we should have taken the oil”) is a strong possibility here. The U.S.
could also be subject to sanctions levied by the World
Trade Organization, if Trump refuses to follow our existing trade agreements,
as he’s threatening. This would be a shocker—leading to certain problems with
China and others. We’re likely to find out what “America First” really means to
Trump & Co.
Finally, technologies should gain momentum this coming year
with this trine, however a heavy focus on the profit motive (cardinal
grand square discussed above) may constrain research that doesn’t
promise immediate short-term gain (Jupiter). This may be bad news for
the environment, which is no surprise, given Trump’s agenda.
Health- and environment-focused players could even be
considered the “enemy,” given the Virgo 7th house in this chart. It
will be interesting to see what kind of relationship evolves between the Trump
administration and our Native American citizens.
Wheels within wheels
Since we’re trying to coordinate both a long view and the
shorter year-long view ahead, it’s helpful to consider where we are in terms of
the outer planetary cycles in general. The table below details where we will
stand as of this month’s Aries ingress: all numbers that fall below 180° reflect waxing cycles (highlighted in yellow
here); all that exceed 180°
reflect waning cycles (highlighted in
blue).
Importantly, the basic tone and character of a period are
influenced by the balance struck between waxing and waning cycles, so this is
an important distinction.
Table 1. Planetary
cycle positions at the 2017 Aries Ingress
2017
|
Jup
|
Sat
|
Ura
|
Nep
|
Plu
|
Jup
|
292.58
|
182.32
|
218.08
|
271.22
|
|
Sat
|
244.30
|
285.10
|
338.24
|
||
Ura
|
40.40
|
93.55
|
|||
Nep
|
53.14
|
||||
Plu
|
Baigent, Campion and Harvey summarize the general impact of
waxing and waning cycles very helpfully for our purposes here:
“1. The waxing phase from 0°-180° relates to the process of
growth, development, expansion, moving towards fruition. In terms of the mass
psychology when a cycle is in this phase, and particularly when a majority of
cycles are in this phase, it produces a sense of optimism, buoyancy, initiative,
extravagance, a willingness to take risks, to explore, to begin enterprises.
2. The waning phase from 180°-0° relates to the process of
distribution, dissemination, and decay, of the return to the seed form again.
When a cycle is in this phase, and particularly when a majority of cycles are
in this phase, it produces within the collection an increasing sense of
caution, withdrawal, pessimism, an emphasis on consolidation, conservation,
economy, cutting out of fat and deadwood.”[4]
As we can see in Table
1, the majority of cycles this year are waning,
so economic decisions (see cardinal grand square) will tend towards being
risk-averse and consolidating—big corporate merger initiatives will
probably find these are conducive times for their plans. As for public
sentiment, it’s likely to mirror these waning cycles: cautious, somewhat
pessimistic and protectionist.
Narrowing our focus in other regards seems to fit Trump’s
plans, as well; in fact, he seems to regard a big segment of the federal
government as “dead wood,” so it will be interesting to see how this unfolds.
Importantly, three really
significant cycles are completing and hitting the “reset” button in the coming
4 years: Saturn-Pluto (1/2020, 22°+Cap),
Jupiter-Pluto
(4/2020, 24°+Cap), and Jupiter-Saturn
(12/2020, 0°+Aq). My
“Silver Linings…” article referenced in the intro here discusses each of these
in some detail, but there will be much
more to explore between now and then!
Suffice to say here that the consolidating force of these
completing cycles could be exploited to support the nationalist project Trump
seems to have in mind, but IMHO, a far better use of these energies would be to
clear out the corrupt “dead wood” and
inner divisions that have been weighing the entire country down for decades.
The fact that we can steer
the way these energies manifest is reflected in the three waxing cycles we are currently experiencing—Uranus-Neptune, Uranus-Pluto
and Neptune-Pluto.
All of these promote long-term change and evolution on the level of cultures,
nations and civilizations, but the direction of that change is influenced by
the society-level priorities we establish along the way. We are not entirely at the mercy of forces
beyond our control—but the choices we make do have long-reaching consequences.
Deconstruction?
Steve Bannon says “deconstruction”
of the government is a major thrust of the Trump administration—clearly what he
has in mind would tap into Uranus-Pluto’s scorched earth
tendencies and Neptune’s destructive erosion force, but it would also be an
extreme manifestation of the waning cycles now in progress, promoting pessimism
and a cynical withdrawal from our leadership role in the world. This would be
the ultimate triumph for that “Sacred Money & Markets” story.
In retrospect, we might wonder whether this heavy gathering of waning cycle energies
explains how Trump’s message took hold when it did, despite all that was so troubling with his candidacy and
platform. Will there be a self-protective threshold at which even his most
staunch supporters bail out?
Or will they ride our national meltdown into the
sunset with him?
We may not be able to stop Pluto’s inexorable return
process on our national chart, but we can
influence how we re-emerge from the transformation. If we have any desire
at all to rebuild our world around that “Sacred Life & Living Earth” story,
we need to evolve into our higher
Capricorn Pluto potential: a
stronger, more disciplined and confident democracy, infused with more clarity
of purpose.
We must all help Congress develop some Capricorn “spine,”
and soon!
Raye
Robertson is a practicing astrologer, writer and former educator. 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.
She is
also available to read individual charts—contact her at: robertsonraye@gmail.com.
© Raye Robertson 2017. All
rights reserved.
[1]
David C. Korten, Change the Story, Change
the Future: A Living Economy for a Living Earth, Berrett-Koehler
Publishers, 2015.
[2]
Baigent, Campion, Harvey(BCH), Mundane
Astrology: An Introduction to the Astrology of Nations and Groups,
Thorsons, 1984, p. 253.
[3]
This asteroid is thought to reflect potential for volatile disruption (often
brought on by vengeful activity), but it’s not shown in this chart. Software
issue! Eris will fall at 22 deg. 55’44” Aries in this 2017 chart.
[4]
BCH, Mundane Astrology, p. 152-153.
No comments:
Post a Comment