kakistocracy
- kakistocracy (English pronunciation: /kækɪsˈtɑkɹəsi/)
is a system of government which is run by the worst, least
qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens.
I was taken by the Atlantic’s use of this tongue-twisting,
Greek-rooted term to describe American political life these days. How appropriate, given the events of the
past week. Always looking for historical context, I had to know more about
how this damning description of “government by the worst…most unscrupulous” has
been used in the past.
According to Wikipedia, Paul
Gosnold's A sermon Preached at the Publique Fast the ninth day of Aug. 1644
at St. Maries” marked its first
public usage.”[3] Here’s an excerpt—hopefully understandable:
"Therefore we need not make any scruple of praying
against such: against those Sanctimonious Incendiaries, who have fetched fire
from heaven to set their Country in combustion, have pretended Religion to
raise and maintaine a most wicked rebellion…against those Cannibal's who feed
upon the flesh and are drunke with the bloud of their own brethren: against
those Catiline's who seeke their private ends in the publicke disturbance, and
have set the Kingdome on fire to rost their owne egges: against those tempests
of the State, those restlesse spirits who can no longer live, then be stickling
and medling; who are stung with a perpetuall itch of changing and innovating,
transforming our … well-temperd Monarchy into a mad kinde of Kakistocracy. Good
Lord!"[9]
Even if you don’t speak Middle English (and don’t use
apostrophes to express plurals), this probably sounds familiar—and well-said,
given today’s situation. Clearly the behaviors so condemned in 1644 are not so far-fetched. I don’t know about cannibals
drinking “bloude” and “rosting eggs,” but nothing surprises me anymore.
In one week, Trump has basically made clear that he’s prepared
to light “the wick of war,” as North Korea put it; he’s hacked away at women’s
access to birth control on the pretense of religious
freedom; he’s pitted healthy Americans against sick Americans by skewering the
Affordable care Act, and stayed absolutely mute while the funding for
children’s health care (CHIP) ran out. Oh, and he directly threatened to
destroy the First Amendment guarantees of a free press—all in a week’s work.
Trump has proven nearly every time he opens his mouth or fidgets
off a Tweet that he thrives on controlling the situation around him by dividing,
rather than uniting people. He truly suffers from that “perpetuall itch” to
stir up trouble, and this need of his comes across as emotional, not rational. As
General McCaffrey
put it in a somber interview today about Trump’s actions toward Iran, Trump is
no longer even considered a “rational actor” by international players.
As the New Yorker characterizes it, Trump is “defying the world” with his actions on
Iran.
“They’ll wait him out,” General McCaffrey stated, but he also
warned that the global leadership vacuum will not be left open, waiting for the
U.S. to get its act together. China and Russia are waiting in the wings, and if
they step into the vacuum, it won’t
be good for the cause of democracy.
It’s hard to know whether Trump is even interested in promoting democracy (unless the “cause” can be used
as leverage for something else he wants), and he sure doesn’t care to play the
world leadership role American presidents have played since the end of WWII.
Kakistocracy just about says it all. What's missing in its definition is the human misery that accompanies government at its worst.
Kakistocracy just about says it all. What's missing in its definition is the human misery that accompanies government at its worst.
So, what does a situation like this look like, astrologically? Well, as always, it’s not something we
can see in one static chart, in isolation—it requires tracing the cycles and
how they’ve played out in political affairs, keeping one eye on the relevant
personal/collective charts (like Trump’s nativity and the U.S. radix chart) and
one eye on events that might be emblematic of “the way things are” in American
life at this juncture.
We might also look to 2017 Inauguration chart: we’ve talked
about it in posts here, and it certainly was a warning shot, but it doesn’t
completely explain why we’ve sunk so low.
Traditional astrology argues that planetary energies are
politically neutral, on their own
merits (i.e., the same energies can be used by different political agendas to
achieve their aims), yet there is some conventional wisdom, based on historical
precedents, that associates the outer planets—especially Uranus and
Neptune—with ideological tendencies.
According to Mundane
Astrology, by Michael Baigent, Nicholas Campion and Charles Harvey, times
dominated by Uranian energies (especially when combined with Saturn) have tended
toward right-wing politics, or fascism, and times dominated by Neptunian
energies (also with Saturn) tend toward left-wing politics, or socialism/communism.[1] The
authors cite the work of the great André Barbault in all this, who traces the
development of communism from the 1821 Capricorn Uranus-Neptune cycle on.
Similarly, the 1930s and 40s serve as a key time period for
the Uranian eruption of fascism, but the authors also point to the Middle East
as being heavily tied into the Saturn-Uranus cycle. Tracing this particular
cycle (a story for another day) tells us a lot about why the U.S. has become so
enmeshed in that region, and how that has influenced our own politics.
But even though we are now in the throes of another Capricorn Uranus-Neptune
cycle, this time around the neat divide between right-wing and left-wing isn’t
quite as clear-cut. I would submit that Neptune has had about as much to do
with our slide into right-wing extremism under Trump as Uranus has—and of
course, Pluto has been wielding a heavy hand in all of it, as well.
The trouble is, these collective outer-planetary influences
don’t naturally promote democracy—they
represent the “raw” energies of the astrological Cosmos, and by analogy, have
more in common with electromagnetic
force and gravity, than with specific
ideological leanings.
It’s within societies
where these raw forces and the potentials of their cycles are corralled—especially
in combination with social planets Jupiter and Saturn—to political
purposes. And, as we’re witnessing, the same ideals and forces that once
supported democracy can be twisted to entirely opposite purposes.
Again, we can look to the physical world for analogies: the
same force that fed on the warming sea waters to spawn monster hurricanes this
season has also upended our political lives and our confidence in government to
be there for all of us when the need
is greatest. The same natural fury that
has reduced thousands of California homes to ashes and smoke has also reduced
the White House from a dignified, respectable place we can all take pride in,
to an “adult
day care” for a raging president.
What do we need the most to thrive in this world? Clearly,
this question feeds the ideological divides that develop, as do differences in basic
perspective: do we see our earthly existence as a “zero-sum” experience in
which everyone else’s prosperity is considered a loss to our own? Or do we want to live in a non-“zero-sum” world in which we’re all pulling for each other? It’s
not hard to imagine which world would be more peaceful.
Would we rather see cutthroat competition win out over
cooperation, or would we rather come to some sort of a balance that works for
everyone? Clearly, the aggressive tone of the Capricorn Uranus-Neptune cycles
we’ve been caught up in since 1821 weighs in here—Capricorn is an ambitious,
cardinal force to be reckoned with, and those who best embody its spirit are
practiced in overcoming obstacles.
Undoubtedly these aggressive energies helped build the
“American dream” we’re all supposedly enjoying (not!)—but there’s a tipping
point where aggression becomes an end in itself, and with Pluto soon conjoining the
1993 Uranus-Neptune
cycle point (19°+Capricorn),
we may be approaching that point. The precarious situations Trump is creating
for us with North Korea and Iran certainly seem to fit the scenario.
In fact, this brings us to the charts I’d like to explore here.
In my estimation, the time period between now and the time Pluto exactly conjoins
that 1993 cycle point is critical, and because of this, the moment of that first contact could be an
important turning point. Whatever energies are stoked during that lead-in time
(Pluto
already being within orb) will likely start “whistling” around the time that Pluto
first conjoins that cycle point.
If we’re determined
enough to build up enough resistance to Trump’s bellicose plans, this period
could support that resistance, but if Trump is left unconstrained, and his
designs on North Korea and Iran are enabled by Congress and other factors,
things could get ugly after the first of the year.
As we’ve seen, Trump is not above using his Twitter feed to
provoke North Korea, but if they take the bait, what then? We can only hope
that they’re more concerned about their people
than Trump is about them, the South Koreans, the Japanese and all of us!
This “first moment” of Pluto’s conjunction with the cycle
point is captured in the outer wheel of
the triwheel below, and it’s set against that same 1993 cycle’s chart (middle wheel).
Both charts are set in turn against Trump’s nativity, rather than the U.S. Sibly
chart. Trump’s personality infuses
and dominates our international affairs so thoroughly these days that this
choice seemed best.
Let me quickly explain my reasoning here: Astrologers were
once (and probably still are) advisers to world monarchies, and the monarch’s
nativity was thought to “embody” the nation, for better or worse. I would
submit that the situation we’re in with Trump is not much different: with his
powerful natal Mars-ASC (Leo) opposition to the Sibly Moon (chart not shown),
he’s hijacked our collective voice (Moon) for the sake of his own ego
expression, and he’s tapping into power networks such as the evangelicals and
white nationalists to solidify his hold on the nation’s “values.”
No surprise here: divide and conquer is his modus operandi.
But even more to the point, Trump carries the same ego-fueled energy King Louis XIV famously expressed when he declared, “L’etat c’est Moi”… “I am the State.” Or the same delusions of grandeur Richard Nixon expressed when he tried to justify his Watergate crimes by saying “if the president does it, it’s not a crime.”
But even more to the point, Trump carries the same ego-fueled energy King Louis XIV famously expressed when he declared, “L’etat c’est Moi”… “I am the State.” Or the same delusions of grandeur Richard Nixon expressed when he tried to justify his Watergate crimes by saying “if the president does it, it’s not a crime.”
Trump comes by this ego identification naturally with his
Gemini Sun exactly conjoined Sibly
Mars—our national “war machine”—and we can guess that to his thinking, our military
might is what makes America “great” (and
what justifies his actions, however ill-conceived). Nothing moved more quickly through a subservient Congress than his
insistence on dramatically higher defense budgets.
Knowing how Trump can’t let even the simplest slights go unanswered, we can only imagine how
intoxicating it must be to Trump to have the American arsenal at his
disposal.
So, it stands to reason that Trump would surround himself with
former Generals as his advisors, and frankly, it’s not surprising that, as Sen.
Bob Corker says, these handlers are challenged every day with “containing” Trump’s
reckless impulses (Gemini Sun-Uranus conjunction on top of Sibly Mars).
So, long story short, the inner
wheel of the triwheel below is Trump’s nativity. Let’s take a look. Please
note that I will refer to the various charts by Trump (inner); MW (middle), and OW (outer wheel).
Triwheel #1: (inner wheel) Donald J. Trump,, June
14, 1946, 10:54 a.m. DST, Jamaica, NY; (middle wheel) Uranus-Neptune Capricorn
Cycle, February 2, 1993, 12:46:43 p.m., Washington, D.C.; (outer wheel) Pluto-con-1993
Cycle, January 24, 2018, 7:00:24 a.m. ST, Washington, D.C.. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node.
Interchart Grand Fire
Trine: OW Uranus-Moon (Aries) trines
Trump Mars-Asc-MW Chiron (Leo), trines MW No. Node-to-Trump Moon-So. Node
(Sagittarius). Such fiery configurations seem to follow us around these
days—and they will continue to keep things lively and volatile. Of particular concern here is the way Uranus
and the Moon will be stimulating Trump’s volatile Mars-Asc from bellicose
Aries. Notice that Aries Uranus has been transiting square to its initial Capricorn position
in the 1993 cycle for some time (and squaring
Pluto,
to boot), so this accounts for a lot of the tension and volatility we’ve been
experiencing. Trump stepped into the fray to “shake things up,” and
with his Leo points blazing, he’s done just that.
The question posed in this configuration is, can his will-to-conquer be contained
indefinitely, or is he simply an eager agent of our volatile, aggressive times
who finds himself in the right place at the right time?
OW Pluto-Mercury conjoin MW cycle point (Capricorn) and oppose Trump
Saturn-Venus (Cancer); OW MC-Jupiter (Scorpio) conjoins MW Pluto (Scorpio),
sextiles the OW & MW Capricorn points, and trines Trump Saturn-Venus. We
shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that, woven into all the
political/geopolitical and social stress of these times is an over-70, aging
president who is facing some tough personal
astrological transits. Given Pluto’s opposition to his Venus
and Saturn
(with Venus disposing his Libra Jupiter and Saturn ruling his 7th
house of “enemies”), we can see how he might be feeling besieged by forces “out
there” that (in his mind) are “out to get him.” This feeling will be reinforced
by the additional square Jupiter is making to his ego-driven
Mars-ASC
in Leo.
His default response is usually to control by tearing others down—as
we’ve seen, he’s certainly getting a lot of practice with Obama’s legacy! The
square from Jupiter will probably be more annoying than damaging to him, but it
may enhance his need to feel “bigger” and “better” than everyone else. Finishing
a round of golf with Trump, Rand
Paul says, “the president always wins, you know?”
Mercury falls within minutes of Pluto as it conjoins the
Capricorn cycle point—we can expect the overheated rhetoric to continue, but this
and any efforts he makes to manipulate information may backfire on Trump. Financial stress could mount, with debts
coming due. Will ethical rules finally
begin applying to him, too? Will we
finally get a peek at his closely-held tax returns? Seems reasonable, but Trump
may elude true accountability for awhile yet, due to the interesting role
played here by OW Jupiter.
OW Jupiter is enabling the Capricorn points (including OW
Pluto) by sextile, at the same time it trines Trump’s Saturn-Venus,
so any big financial dealings he might have going are probably supported,
although not without cost. Foreign investments could be an issue—will Special
Counsel Mueller come to some definitive point in his investigation regarding
Trump’s international (especially Russian) involvements?
Factoring Trump’s Moon into the picture, falling as it
does at the OW Pluto/Jupiter midpoint,
suggests that his reach for power (political and financial) may exceed his
grasp, and that his family could experience instability in this regard. In
fact, Jupiter’s influence doesn’t stop there.
Interchart Yod: OW Jupiter-MC (Scorpio) inconjoin Trump Sun-No. Node (Gemini and OW Uranus-Part of Fortune (Aries); the Gemini and Aries points are sextile. A yod can be an intensely frustrating configuration with a fated quality, and it can often feel that you’re “damned if you do, and damned if you don’t,” however Jupiter’s natural beneficence makes this one a bit easier to bear.
We don’t typically see Jupiter’s highest expressions in Scorpio, however—the temptation towards greed and excess are more difficult than ever to rein in, and we shouldn’t underestimate the temptations that Trump may be exposed to as he contemplates going to war.
Interchart Yod: OW Jupiter-MC (Scorpio) inconjoin Trump Sun-No. Node (Gemini and OW Uranus-Part of Fortune (Aries); the Gemini and Aries points are sextile. A yod can be an intensely frustrating configuration with a fated quality, and it can often feel that you’re “damned if you do, and damned if you don’t,” however Jupiter’s natural beneficence makes this one a bit easier to bear.
We don’t typically see Jupiter’s highest expressions in Scorpio, however—the temptation towards greed and excess are more difficult than ever to rein in, and we shouldn’t underestimate the temptations that Trump may be exposed to as he contemplates going to war.
In fact, it’s not surprising that Trump has “found religion”
lately—a Jupiter phenomenon that may appeal to him because Jupiter
is now in Scorpio and within a trine of his sensitive Cancer Mercury.
He’s quite masterful when it comes to spinning narratives, and wars are always
declared on the basis of righteous, even sanctimonious narratives, whether the
truth concurs or not. By next year I would expect that these friends
he’s now courting among evangelicals and nationalists will help him spread the
“Gospel” of waging war, Trump-style.
There’s so much more
we could tease out of the chart above, but I think it’s important to pull back
from Pluto’s
conjunction to the 1993 cycle point for a bit to consider what else is happening in early 2018. Mundane
astrologers tend to look to the Sun’s cardinal ingresses, especially
its Aries ingress (also known as the
astrological “New Year”) on March 20th for insight into the “tone”
of the coming year. So, let’s take a brief look at the ingress chart, set for
Washington, D.C.—correlations with other key charts will be mentioned if they
arise.
Chart #2: Aries
Ingress 2018, March 20, 2018, 12:03:35 p.m. DST, Washington, DC. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node.
Sun (Aries) squares Mars-DSC-Saturn (Capricorn). Positioned as
they are on either side of the 7th house cusp of “enemies,” this is
a troubling sign. We might also remember that this Saturn (and widely, Mars)
falls opposite Trump’s natal Mercury (chart not shown), which
radiates outward through his chart via his Gemini points, so his internal
stress and pressure-cooker temperament could become problematic next year (as
if they aren’t already).
The Sun is elevated in the chart,
conjunct Pisces Chiron, which in turn, squares Sagittarius Vesta. Military
households (6th house Vesta) look to be stressed, if not wounded (Chiron).
It concerns me that this Vesta falls at the Galactic Center
(approx. 26°
Sagittarius)—the connection with this point to whistle-blowing has been
well-established, and we can only imagine what these brave individuals might be
trying to reveal at that juncture. Controversies in the military itself? Among
public servants? Mars will have recently
transited that point and stirred things up.
Mercury/Uranus and Venus/Uranus (midpoints, Aries) square Pluto
(Capricorn). There’s a lot of aggressive Aries and Capricorn energy in
this chart, so risky over-reaching may come naturally in next year’s
astro-climate. “Act first and think later” will be a strong tendency, but Saturn’s
presence in Capricorn may check some of the worst recklessness. Congress and
the Courts may feel that they’re being pushed to their limits, with Saturn
squaring Sibly Saturn, but the “rule of Law” should wield some clout. Some
of this may be due to rebellious outbreaks of protest and social
unrest—anti-war protests are likely. Other actions of the government (i.e., to
decimate the ACA and the EPA, to enable anti-LGBTQ discrimination, etc.) may
have legal ramifications, as well.
Opposite Trump’s Mercury (ever loose with the truth),
this Saturn
could demand a straight story where he’s not eager to give one. In this sense,
the Law could develop into one more “enemy” in Trump’s mind.
Jupiter (Scorpio) sextiles Pluto (Capricorn), inconjoins Uranus (Aries)
and trines Chiron (Pisces). Remember also that this Jupiter
simultaneously squares Trump’s Mars-ASC
and trines his Cancer Saturn-Venus,
so there’s a sense that the Cosmos may “snatch” the metaphorical “football” out
from under Trump as Lucy did to Charlie Brown—what he’s hoping to accomplish
may not proceed according to plan. Will the Russia investigations (Scorpio)
reach some conclusions and derail his plans?
As for what these aspects suggest about next year in general, it’s possible that the Market (and the broader economy, to some extent) will hit a wall. This is reinforced by Capricorn Saturn transiting opposite Sibly Jupiter-Venus (chart not shown). With Jupiter in Scorpio, tax reform (inconjunct to Uranus) could devolve into a rather “murky,” unconventional process. Trade deals are likely to suffer in the coming year, especially if Trump carries out his threats to undermine and/or pull out of them. The “swamp” will be overstocked with corrupt players, but Uranus (riding high in the chart), could hold their “feet” to the fire (ouch, mixed metaphor!).
As for what these aspects suggest about next year in general, it’s possible that the Market (and the broader economy, to some extent) will hit a wall. This is reinforced by Capricorn Saturn transiting opposite Sibly Jupiter-Venus (chart not shown). With Jupiter in Scorpio, tax reform (inconjunct to Uranus) could devolve into a rather “murky,” unconventional process. Trade deals are likely to suffer in the coming year, especially if Trump carries out his threats to undermine and/or pull out of them. The “swamp” will be overstocked with corrupt players, but Uranus (riding high in the chart), could hold their “feet” to the fire (ouch, mixed metaphor!).
I am concerned that this Jupiter-Uranus inconjunct could
support what Steve Bannon is calling his “war”
on the GOP. Bannon is marshaling scary forces in this nation for the
purpose of reinventing the GOP in his radical nationalist image, and this effort
could take Trump’s toxicity to a new level. Bannon is using loyalty to Trump as
a bludgeon against sitting Congress members, and he apparently aims to replace
them with those willing to serve his own
extreme right-wing agenda in the process. Here’s a case where Uranus
definitely seems to be supporting a right-wing, fascist-type phenomenon: what
Baigent, Campion & Harvey call the “violent eruption of the repressed
shadow.”[2]
My other concern is that Trump (and Bannon, acting from the
wings) will use the prospects of war with North Korea as a smokescreen for
their project of “dismantling” the so-called “Deep State”—aka, the Federal
Government—and the constitutional guarantees it protects. It’s very difficult
to fathom what exactly they’re after in the end, but I don’t think we will
recognize American democracy when they’re done with it.
Final thoughts
On that note, it’s worth pointing out that General McCaffrey
(referenced earlier) predicted that Trump will have us “sliding towards war by
next summer,” while the Washington Post is reporting today that nearly half
of those who identify as Republicans would support a pre-emptive strike
against North Korea. I’d be interested to know how many of these willing GOP
members are getting their news from social media and other shaky sources—they
clearly aren’t listening to the rational experts warning us against such action.
History shows that wars are often launched in springtime, when
Aries energies are spoiling for a fight, and this coming Aries ingress could
definitely qualify, if we don't make better choices. Hope springs eternal, of course: a Capricorn Mars
disposing the Aries ingress could be surprisingly pragmatic, rather than
ideological, and perhaps the small progress made recently with better job
numbers and a buoyant stock market will prompt enough people to say no, this is not the time for war. It’s time to do something constructive with the progress we've made.
Cancer rises in this chart, and a beautiful Taurus Moon
disposes the ascendant. So what do we think Lady Luna would wish for us
all?
To move forward and achieve much-needed things right here at
home? To rebuild our hurricane-ravaged states (and Puerto Rico!), and to rebuild
our national infrastructure? To build, instead of destroy?
We have better choices!
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.
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