“Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;
’twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.”
As with individuals, nations are
often faced with fateful choices at critical junctures, and Trump—heavily influenced
by the dark vision of his paranoid “whisperer,” Steve Bannon, a real “Iago” type—made one such choice
yesterday. By deciding to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Accord on climate
change—against the urging of corporate America and the world community (with
the notable exception of Russia)—Trump simply relinquished world leadership
regarding climate issues and much more.
The global media outcry has been
overwhelmingly negative: Trump has shot his (and our) global reputation in the foot and then asked Bannon
to back a Mack truck over it. The analysts
who are particularly good at connecting Trump’s destructive “dots” are, of
course, connecting his behavior at the NATO conference in Brussels with this
new attempt to shove NATO—and the entire post-World War II world order—aside.
Washington
Post’s
Eugene Robinson speaks for many when he says that “Trump is abdicating all
moral power.” The tragic irony is that Trump won’t accomplish a “better deal”
for the U.S. in any case: the climate accord was entirely voluntary anyway! All he’s done is to cement the world’s view of
him—and by extension, the U.S.—that we can’t “play nice with others.” That we
don’t care what happens to the global environment—despite piles and piles of
evidence that we have a vested interest
in that environment.
In fact, like the playground bully
he is, Trump (with "Iago"/Bannon hot by his side) has taken our ball and left the field. It’s now up to us to carry on the
fight without him because not being “laughed at by other countries” (his words)
is more important to him than the lives of future generations. Perhaps he didn’t
“abdicate” anything—it’s not clear that he ever
had any moral power.
 |
|
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/
commons/thumb/e/ed/Othello_and_Iago.gif/
220px-Othello_and_Iago.gif
|
So, the world has no choice but to
move on. Trump’s vision is looking more and more like a darkly Shakespearean
plot to consign America’s leadership role in the world order to the dustbin of
history, but for the sake of—who? Veteran
journalist Dan Rather
says Trump is “lashing out in anger” against NATO leaders, and that the winners
in this situation are Russia, Saudi Arabia, China, Steve Bannon and his
nationalist following. Son-in-law Jared Kushner (now being investigated for ties to Russia that may have been leaked to the press by Bannon) stands to lose, along with the rest of us.
Anything that undermines the NATO
alliance is fine by Russia and China, and Trump seems happy to oblige. Meanwhile,
France’s new president Macron is issuing an invitation to besieged American
climate scientists to work in France.
The U.S. business community—which sees the future more clearly than most—lobbied
Trump intensely to stay in the climate accord; this, while Trump uses American business as the pretext
for his actions. What’s wrong with this
picture??
As always, the astrology of any significant
action lends insight into more than meets the eye. Let’s consider a biwheel
between Trump’s 3 p.m. announcement in the White House rose garden and his
nativity.
Biwheel
#1: (inner wheel) Donald J.
Trump, June 14, 1946, 10:54 a.m. DST, Jamaica, NY; (outer wheel) Trump
quits Paris Accord announcement. June 1, 2017, 3:00 p.m. DST,
Washington, D.C. Tropical Equal Houses;
True Node.
First, let me say that it appears
this announcement was carefully timed to bolster Trump’s personal power, but whatever
short-term gains he makes with some will likely be undermined quickly. Trump’s
instinctual feel for timing is rather uncanny, but often self-sabotaging. His
finely-tuned threat meter—Cancer Mercury—disposes his Gemini points,
but unfortunately, by withdrawing the U.S. from the Accord, he’s conflating his
“sacred duty” as president (gag) with protecting his own thin skin.
Paris Sun/Mars (midpoint, Gemini) conjoins
Trump No. Node/Sun (midpoint, Gemini) and opposes Trump Moon-Paris Saturn Rx-GC
(Sagittarius); Paris Mars sextiles Trump Mars (Leo). Between rulership
and disposition, there’s a lot of Mercury activity at work here—what happens in
the media cuts deep with Trump’s Gemini nature, and he uses the media in all
sorts of creative ways to fight back when he feels under siege. It appears that
his bruised ego (Sun/Mars midpoint) is the driving force here, and even though
it’s wide, transiting Saturn’s opposition to this midpoint
(and its ongoing challenge to his natal Sun-Moon) suggests that Trump is fighting
to prove himself in power circles that are simply beyond his reach.
This makes sense: he was expected to
play in the “big leagues” in those NATO meetings, and he has scant experience compared
to the other players. Those leaders may not have been as inclined as the Saudis
were to shower him with praise and sword dances, and he didn’t come bearing NATO
any gifts, either. Pulling out of Paris appears to be Trump’s opportunity (Paris
Mars
sextile his Mars) to “flip them off.”
Deflecting attention from the drip-drip-drip of Russia investigation hype was undoubtedly
another Trump goal, although the attention to his Paris Accord action is largely negative in the end. Unfortunately for him, both streams of coverage are
continuing unabated—new revelations (Saturn at GC) emerged
last night regarding his attempts to “unilaterally rescind the sanctions on
Russia” right after his inauguration.
Paris MC conjoins Trump Mercury (Cancer);
Paris Pluto opposes Trump Mercury/Saturn (midpoint, Cancer) and squares Paris Jupiter-Trump Jupiter (Libra). Pluto’s
transit opposite Trump’s Mercury/Saturn midpoint, square his Jupiter suggests
that his communication problems within powerful circles brought us to this
fateful decision. Munkasey characterizes this midpoint on its own as “Pursuit
of dreary thoughts which invade your mind and lower your self-esteem; you enjoy
thinking alone and can take this to an extreme.” With Pluto’s involvement, the
stakes are even higher: “Serious incidents provoke questioning official
communications; the ending of business with others due to serious breakdowns in
your communications.” [1]
We can see here why German
Chancellor Angela Merkel has such reservations about the U.S. commitment to
NATO going forward (see May
31 post here). Clearly, communication breakdowns informed her somber
takeaway from the Brussels summit. Trump does operate along mental “extremes,”
and with the Paris agreement, the extreme we’re seeing is his destructive,
paranoid thinking, which now threatens to isolate
the U.S. from its allies and the world.
Othello was goaded by “honest Iago”
into killing his beloved Desdemona in a totally unjust, jealous rage: the rest
of the world is being “unfair” to the
U.S. with a voluntary, cooperative agreement???
Interchart
Fire Grand Trine: Paris Venus-Uranus
trines Paris No. Node-Trump Mars-ASC (Leo) trines Trump Moon-Paris Saturn Rx-GC
(Sagittarius). Dan Rather was tapping into this configuration when he observed
that Trump is “lashing out in anger” at the Europeans by pulling out of the
Paris accord. In fact, Trump’s thin-skinned nature is being stressed pretty
intensely right now, and we might want to recall that he’s the one with his “finger
on the nuclear button.”
 |
| http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/othello.jpg |
Hopefully there are some cooler heads around him
because he’s not likely to cool down for awhile—Uranus and Saturn
remain trine his Mars into 2018, and the revelations aren’t likely to stop
during that period either, with Saturn hovering near the GC.
As we’ve seen in the past, his anger
tends to get his political base whipped up, so it’s looking like a long, hot
summer ahead, and the August eclipse (see
May
2nd post here) could bring it all to a crescendo of sorts. We’re already
seeing a spike in race-based hate crimes
in the news, as the White House is now appealing to the Supreme
Court to pass its ethnic-based travel ban; the “fish stinks from the head”
in this, as in everything.
This intensity is in full play on
the global arena, as well (the fiery grand trine exists apart from Trump’s
chart, although the Node will be moving out of orb relatively quickly)—we need to
hope that Trump’s advisors have something more than their boss’s thin skin in
mind when they make decisions about military matters. Anger tends to attract
all kinds of negative energies to itself, too—will North Korea provide Trump
with a convenient excuse for “venting?” A story we’ll revisit soon.
Paris Neptune (Pisces) quincunxes Paris Jupiter-Trump Jupiter-Chiron (Libra). Trump comes by his illusions of grandeur and victimization right here: he seems to feel like a wounded hero, and the more restrictions put upon him, the worse it gets. We’ve seen how he chafes at the checks and balances presidents are expected to deal with, and this feeling certainly informed yesterday’s speech about the Paris Accord (the rest of the world is so “unfair” to him). So, should we simply anoint him "Emperor" and be done with it?
Trump’s Jupiter is natally retrograde
and conjunct Chiron, so somewhere in his early development he probably had
serious run-ins with authority and the Saturnian world of “rules” (perhaps the
reason he ended up in military school?); he may have internalized the idea that
rules are only there to stop him from achieving his ambitions.
In fact, his
mania for rolling back regulations (from day one of his presidency) and for
disregarding presidential ethics norms looks, from this perspective, like a
projection of his own needs onto U.S. policies. The Paris Accord involves
voluntarily adopting regulations—not so
comfortable for him.
Looking ahead
So, we have to come to grips with the
power of perceived “victimization”—a force to be reckoned with, but for all the
wrong reasons. This self perception makes Trump an easy mark for those “Iagos”
who would like to manipulate him for their own purposes. Among those are Russia’s
Putin,
who has reportedly set his sights on opening up the Arctic for oil and gas
drilling:
“Now the grand aim is to allow global climate change to
melt the Arctic and turn the water at the top of the world into a lucrative oil
and gas field, as well as a network of efficient new sea lines Russia will
control.
Putin, in essence, is gaining U.S. backing for his
vision as his pal, President Donald Trump, signals that America will withdraw from the Paris Agreement
on combating climate change.
The Russian leader has made no secret of his plan. In
fact, he has proclaimed it from the literal rooftop of the world,
most recently at a conference on the future of the Arctic region in March.
'Climate change brings in more favorable
conditions and improves the economic potential of this region,' Putin
said told CNBC while attending the International Arctic
Forum in Arkhangelsk, Russia. “Today, Russia’s GDP is the result of the
economic activity of this region.”
Fortunately, there are very wise
people out there who see these dynamics for what they are and can “connect the
dots” with new revelations about Trump’s intent to roll back Russian sanctions.
Where is Secretary of State and former Exxon Mobil CEO, Rex Tillerson on all
this? We’ll probably hear more soon—stay tuned!
In the meantime, we can take comfort
in President Obama’s continued leadership in the climate change arena—and in
his faith in us as a people. His statement
in response to Trump’s actions yesterday speaks volumes:
“But even in the absence of American leadership; even as this
Administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future; I’m
confident that our states, cities, and businesses will step up and do even more
to lead the way, and help protect for future generations the one planet we’ve
got.”
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]
Michael Munkasey, Midpoints: Unleashing
the Power of the Planets, ACS Publications, San Diego, CA, 1991, p. 164-5.
No comments:
Post a Comment