“I think we’re at a
pivotal moment, but we’re also at a dangerous time…”
Mika Brzezinski, MSNBC.com
“That’s the way these
corrupt bargains always work. You think you’re only giving your tormentor a
little piece of yourself, but he keeps asking and asking, and before long he
owns your entire soul.”
David Brooks, NYTimes.com
Shortly before noon on December 21st (Eastern Standard Time), the Sun will enter Capricorn and begin what astrology generally considers the final quarter of the astronomical/astrological year (assuming that year begins every March as the Sun enters Aries at the Spring Equinox). While the Capricorn ingress is often given less predictive weight regarding the coming year than the Aries one, the winter solstice still holds considerable importance as we close out one calendar year and “conceive of” the next. I will argue this is especially true in the U.S., given our national chart. More on this to come.
For the record, collective astrological
wisdom is divided about which of these two ingresses should mark the new year’s
inception because the natural cycle can be said to begin at either time: in
winter, as the earth lies fallow and seeds are planted for the next season’s
growth (conception), or in spring,
when visible growth actually manifests.[1]
So last year at this time, I suggested that
we explore the Capricorn and Aries ingresses approaching at that time
as one continuing story line in a potentially volatile 2017 narrative. A new
presidential administration was gestating (winter 2016) and would launch shortly
after the Capricorn ingress. Looking back now, the cosmic writing on the wall
was startlingly clear: 2017 was a volatile year indeed.
Last time the Sun was edging near Capricorn,
I wrote about how the ancients used to celebrate Saturnalia in honor of Saturn, considered the Lord of Agriculture. Simply
put, survival depended upon this
often dour, demanding, earthy god—famine was an all-too-frequent reality. Even
today, however, growing food for one’s family and community remains a powerful
way to learn responsibility, diligence, perseverance and determination—the
“sacrifices” we put on Saturn’s altar. Slackers need not apply.
Societies took shape from this
agricultural matrix and the needs it
addressed, over time giving rise to moral and ethical standards and precepts
which have always been heavily influenced by cultural/religious dogma and
customs. So, because morality and ethics have deep ramifications for how
societies function, Saturn has always been associated with the formation of standards
of behavior and a moral “core”— social development on both personal and
collective levels.
This process of formation happens in the
course of Time (also ruled by Saturn), as Saturn transits around a person’s (or
a nation’s) natal chart, turning its attention to each area of life (house) in
turn, and finally returning to its natal position. Each Saturn return takes
approximately 28 years, but the developmental work achieved in the course of each
return accrues in a pattern with identifiable stages.
According to the wisdom of this cycle, we
are fully “socialized” (ready to take our places as productive Saturnian
citizens) when we have finally internalized
the limits and norms that our elders and authority figures (all
Saturn-ruled) used to mold our behavior and ethical worldviews over time. There
may be wisdom here, but as any review of the news reveals, it doesn’t always
succeed. Our society’s “rule of law” wouldn’t be needed if this acculturation
process was foolproof. If humans were, say, less
human.
Today, one burning behavioral issue in
the news concerns the treatment of women by men in powerful positions. What are
the limits of acceptable behavior, in words and deeds? At what point does
“misconduct” become a “crime?” These nuances are critical if we’re looking to
deepen our society’s ethical consciousness and maintain Saturn’s rigor and
fairness—Saturn is dignified in
justice-minded Libra.
IMHO, we’re at a critical moment in the
so-called “Silence Breakers” movement, however (thanks to Time magazine for that term!): signs are strong that the Neptunian
flood gates of social media and its “echo chambers” are overtaking the movement’s
revelations, threatening to squander their potential for inspiring a deep,
collective moral awakening. We’ll consider the astrology of all this in a bit.
Neptune’s involvement
allows corruptible players to co-opt the movement’s energies, serving it up as
just another form of sensationalism or even worse, blanket condemnation. Under Neptune’s
distorted lens, all transgressions will be considered ONE BIG THING with no degrees of severity and no thought for
rehabilitation. Justice could be compromised, society’s moral compass could be
skewed by intentional divisiveness (witness Alabama’s Senate race), and needless
damage to families and reputations can be done.
Where Saturnian forces
acknowledge human imperfection and take responsibility for disciplining and
reforming, Neptunian ones level the field with one indiscriminate tsunami
of guilt. All are guilty until proven
innocent. MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski
was speaking to this precarious possibility when she said, “I think we are at a
pivotal moment, but we’re also at a dangerous time.”
It’s clear that the “Silence Breaker”
movement is just getting revved up, and it absolutely deserves support at this
critical Capricorn ingress: my hope is that Capricorn empowers Saturn
to take the lead as it continues to unfold. Regardless, we can expect
the push-pull Saturn-Neptune dynamic (both planets powerful in their ruling
signs) to carry us through the final quarter of this solar year into the March
2018 Aries ingress.
Let’s consider how all this and more might
unfold into the coming year: what follows is a chart cast for the Capricorn
ingress in Washington, D.C., set against the U.S. Sibly chart.
Biwheel
#1: (inner wheel)
U.S. Sibly Chart, July 4, 1776, 5:10 p.m. LMT, Philadelphia, PA;
(outer wheel) Capricorn Ingress 2017, December 21, 2017,
11:16:51 a.m., ST, Washington, D.C. Tropical
Equal Houses, True Node.
Interchart
T-Square: Ingress Sun conjoins Ingress
Saturn (both Capricorn) and both oppose Sibly Venus-Jupiter (Cancer); this axis
squares Sibly MC (Libra). This configuration is
extraordinary first because Saturn isn’t often so closely
conjunct the winter Solstice Sun. Zero degrees Capricorn is
considered a “World Point,” so this meeting of Sun and Saturn
is significant for power relationships and structures, here and abroad. The
opposition stretches across the 1st and 7th Sibly houses,
suggesting that this winter-early spring season will force us to reconsider the
image we project to the world and the relationships we share with allies.
Israel’s radix
chart ties into this configuration through its Venus at 5°+Cancer—we
haven’t heard the last of Trump’s
decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s
capitol. This decision feels like the tip of an aggressive (cardinal) new
policy shift “iceberg,” in fact. Trump’s natal Mercury (8°+Cancer)
conjoins Israel’s[2] Venus—it
will be interesting to see if a Trump hotel emerges in the region as a
consequence.
World leaders
are fairly unanimous that Trump’s actions have destroyed what was left of the Israeli-Palestinian
peace process. Is it just coincidence that the Supreme
Court recently gave the administration the
go-ahead for its Muslim travel ban? More on all this as events unfold.
Our trading
partners are also implicated in this cardinal t-square—with the midterm
elections coming up in November, we can expect that NAFTA will be tossed around
like the political football it is. If there’s insufficient opposition, Saturn
may support Trump’s project of shutting down our borders and building walls
where doors and open relationships used to exist.
Notice that the
point opposite a t-square’s focal point (here, Sibly MC) is the point of
resolution, where the tensions built into the configuration can be worked
through to create something constructive. That point falls in the Sibly 4th—the
“grassroots” dimension of American life, which makes perfect sense because turn-out
and activism in next year’s election will be essential.
The involvement
of Sibly
Venus and Jupiter (Cancer) is key here: women wield real economic power
in the U.S. market place, so companies will respond to any pressure applied. The
corporate sector has been aggressive about removing accused offenders, and this
will probably continue.
Finally, there’s
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump/Russia investigation. Factions within
the GOP (including some powerful players like Judiciary Committee Chairman
Chuck Grassley) are working overtime trying to develop a narrative that disables
and discredits the investigation. It’s getting too close to home, isn’t it? This
brings in transiting Pluto’s (Capricorn) opposition to Sibly
Sun, which plays into the configuration because Saturn disposes Capricorn.
Mueller is
methodically turning the Plutonian screws on Trump and his associates, family
and otherwise, and he’s going about it with Saturnian finesse and rigor.
Attempts to disqualify him are patently Neptunian (casting aspersions on his
credibility, his impartiality), so it will be interesting to see which
planetary heavy prevails. Nothing can be taken for granted here.
Pluto
also opposes the Sibly Sun/Mercury midpoint
(18°46’ Cancer), so the
court of public opinion may shift dramatically. Trump probably senses this opening—notice
that he’s back out on the campaign stump already? The Alabama race provided a
pretext for getting his own messages out there, but he probably won’t retreat
back into the White House after tomorrow’s race is settled. Campaign rallies
are where he wields the most grassroots clout, and as we’re seeing in this
configuration, the 4th house grassroots domain is the leverage
point.
So, Mueller’s
investigation may diligently unearth acres of facts and figures (Saturn),
but to cut through Trump’s Neptunian victimization narrative (“it’s
all a rigged system that’s determined to work against innocent little old me”), it must also
capture hearts and minds.
A final word on Pluto’s
role here: it’s an “all or nothing” energy—it takes prisoners, willing
or not. In this sense, the power various players are trying to gain over the
grass roots can be toxic and manipulative. David Brooks captured this danger
very well in a recent article I highly recommend (see the epigraph of this article, above):
“That’s the way
these corrupt bargains always work. You think you’re only giving your tormentor
a little piece of yourself, but he keeps asking and asking, and before long he
owns your entire soul.”
Brooks was referring to the Faustian bargain the GOP made with Trump to sell him their party's "soul.” We’ve seen how low he’s dragged the GOP in his quest for
a Republican Senator’s seat in Alabama. We have to wonder what he will ask for
next.
Interchart
Grand Water Trine: Sibly Sun (Cancer)
trines Ingress Jupiter (Scorpio) trines Ingress Neptune (Pisces). Notice
that Ingress
Neptune also conjoins the ASC, which indicates that Neptune rises in the Ingress chart. This may
have its light moments, but it’s not particularly positive overall: as we’ve
discussed, Neptune has a way of undermining a Saturnian agenda, and this
coming Capricorn season should be Saturn’s chance to shine.
Many consider Saturn
to be oppressive, but in my observation, Saturn helps restore confidence,
stability and order if deployed judiciously. Its energies can, of course, be
used oppressively—context and balance are everything here. The so-called “Net
Neutrality” debate provides a case-in-point: by removing Saturnian regulations (a Jupiter-Neptune ploy), consumers
will likely suffer more expense, less open Internet access and a general
over-commercializing of the Net (even worse than it is now). Like so many areas
of life, this too is relative: one
man’s oppression is another’s liberation. A discussion for another day!
In the context
of this Capricorn ingress—a season in which Saturn should have more sway—we can hope that its energies will help
impose some kind of order, restore behavioral norms and hold corrupt officials
to account. Given Neptune’s strength in Pisces, however, this restorative agenda
may get lost in the less transparent agenda of Jupiter trine Neptune!
Jupiter trine Neptune reflects
an overwhelming rush of idealism and perhaps religiosity—perhaps an “awakening”
of sorts. This may sound euphoric, but the emotionalism that always accompanies
such phenomena can be manipulated for any number of corrupt purposes, and 2018 is an election year that will overwhelm
our public airwaves immediately after the New Year.
There’s a danger
here that the floodgates of deceptive imagery
will also open up (Jupiter and Neptune together are very
“right-brained”): beware of Facebook and
other social media ads that grab your attention with suspicious, over-hyped
visuals. Hypocrisy, deception (Neptune) and greed (Jupiter,
especially in Scorpio) will be unleashed (trine). It will be up to a
conscious citizenry to fight for rationality, fact-based journalism and
accountability.
What you see
will not necessarily be what you get, and at least part of this distortion will emanate from the
Top (Sibly
Sun). We know Trump’s penchant for spinning rumors and “what-about-ism”
into election issues, for whipping up a crowd and outright lying—these dynamics
can easily go overboard under the unleashed watery energies we see here, and they
can cause real harm (even more than we’ve seen already).
This watery
grand trine could also take the “Silence Breakers” movement touched upon
earlier into dangerous excesses. Women who seriously want to influence our
culture for the better need to proceed in a balanced way, erring on the side of
Saturnian justice and due process. If revenge is the primary goal (a Scorpio Jupiter
would be fine with that), things can go very wrong. What are the clear goals of
the movement? How can we defend these goals from being manipulated and
corrupted?
To effect lasting
cultural change, the charges women bring forward need to be verifiable (Saturn).
I know this point is hotly debated, but demanding anything less than a clear,
measured legal standard will eventually inspire resistance and perhaps even a backlash. The
feeling of empowerment is strong right now for women, but I’m hoping that the
movement can avoid the pitfalls of Neptunian distortion at all costs!
Internationally,
the watery energies in this grand trine may exacerbate the unrest Trump has
instigated in the Middle East over his Israel decision, and they can loosen
inhibitions on high for responding to such tensions. Trump’s belligerent stance
toward North Korea[3] is
a major concern here—its Uranus (0°+Cancer)
falls directly opposite Ingress Sun-Saturn, and the U.N.
is warning that what Chinese officials have called the “black hole of
confrontation” between Trump and Kim Jong-Un is now “the most dangerous
security issue in the world.”
Belligerence is
clearly not solving the problem here, and time and patience are wearing thin. A
group of Nobel
Peace Prize winners is in the news today for having warned nuclear-armed
countries to disarm, saying that nuclear destruction is “one impulsive tantrum
away.” The Mars/Jupiter midpoint in this chart exactly trines Neptune—an impulsive “tantrum” (Mars)
borne of delusions of grandeur (Jupiter-Neptune) and a victimization
narrative (Neptune) are not out
of the question!
Geopolitical
turmoil often, in fact, correlates with flowing Jupiter-Neptune energies,
especially when Uranus gets into the act. Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune
were powerfully involved in the so-called Arab Spring
in 2010-11—Pisces Uranus was transiting in mutual reception with Aquarius Neptune,
and with Jupiter in Neptunian Pisces as well, the flood gates of change
were hard to contain.
Those were
heady, euphoric times in a lot of ways (remember how the uprisings were called
the “first social media
revolutions?”), but they also inspired a series of repressive backlashes: the
Syrian Civil War, a military crack-down in Egypt, chaos in Libya, and indirectly,
perhaps even the current calamity in
Yemen.
The instability experienced
across that entire region in the wake of these planetary passages (other
articles on this blog look at the cycles involved in all this) probably helped
produce the migrant crisis that’s been rocking Europe ever since, as well. That
crisis in turn inspired the rise of right-wing and ultra-nationalist groups
who—like Trump—see every issue through the lens of “Us against Them.”
Neptune’s
role here is two-pronged: in these unstable, difficult times for refugees and asylum
seekers, nations either follow the low
road of fears and biases, or the high
road of compassion. Balance between these two is possible and desirable. Trump
has all but eliminated our refugee sanctuary program and now, the Supreme Court
has given Trump’s Muslim travel ban the go-ahead. This is making America
“great” again?
Fluid borders
have been a much celebrated hallmark of the European Union[4],
and with Neptune now transiting its Pisces 8th house, its
future is uncertain at best. Aside from the ever-present threat of terrorism, instability
in the Euro may undermine the EU’s joint finances (8th house), and
if this happens, the trend towards old right-wing demons surfacing across the
continent could deepen.
No foregone
conclusions here, but Saturnian forces need to step up and
reinforce the Union’s resolve and its defenses. It’s probably far from a
perfect union, but it does constrain and deflect some of the worst right-wing
impulses. Thankfully, some key European electorates have thus far rejected
radical right-wingers, but it would be dangerous to let down their guard.
Since a Neptunian
passage often wields passive aggressive power, the best defense here could be
to take a proactive approach. What
can be done to balance out legitimate security concerns with the call to human
compassion? The vast majority of those fleeing horrendous circumstances would
probably rather stay home, if they
could make a life for their families there.
The entire Middle
East, for instance, is walking on geopolitical “egg-shells” over the approaching
end of Big Oil, and there’s a new “Cold War” developing between Iran and Saudi
Arabia for regional power. None of us
have anything to gain from instability over there, and taking sides (as Trump
seems to be doing with Saudi Arabia) will only entangle us more tightly in the
region’s affairs.
So, with Jupiter
in Pluto-ruled
Scorpio now, we might consider the watery grand trine in this Ingress chart to
be a “Pandora’s Box” configuration. Jupiter is transiting our Sibly 12th
as part of this grand trine. This Jupiter is disposed by an aggressive
Capricorn Pluto, making Power and
Growth at any cost the quest, so it should probably not surprise us that
we’re seeing how “low we can go” with the probable election—with our
president’s (Sibly Sun) full-throated support—of accused child molester Roy
Moore in Alabama. The fact that all this is happening in concert with the “Silence
Breakers” movement is stunning.
Needless to say,
the fall-out will taint us all—not just
the GOP. Perhaps we need to avoid politicizing and emotionalizing (Neptune)
these deep issues of national integrity: with Saturn in our collective
1st house this quarter, we can probably expect a comeuppance if we
do so.
Perhaps there’s
a cosmic balance available: keep our actions real and well-focused with Saturn,
keep them light with a touch of compassionate
(not distorted) Neptune. Criminals
deserve everything the law throws at them, but in general, we need healthy individuals and gender
relationships in this society, not crushed,
resentful individuals and toxic
relationships.
How many more disturbing
compromises will we be asked to navigate in the run-up to Election 2018?
Final
thoughts, as we contemplate a new year
It’s hard to miss that this past year
has been tremendously destructive:
some might say the only damage has been to our complacency about life in these United States, but others say (and
I fear) that our democracy, our environment and our national reputation are all up for grabs.
It’s tempting to point the finger of
blame at that ONE MAN in the White House, but of course there’s much more to it
than that. Trump wouldn’t be there, actively dismantling our democratic
institutions, without the concerted efforts of many, many players, both here
and abroad—and he wouldn’t be there if the Cosmos hadn’t facilitated, weirdly enough. Clearly, we have lessons to learn, and
the Cosmos is being fairly heavy-handed about it. So, even if we wake up one of
these mornings and Trump has mercifully submitted his resignation, we won’t be
out of the cosmic woods.
Major issues on both domestic and
international levels abound, so it appears that we’re going to end the year
with our collective “stomach” tied in knots. Even so, the wisdom of Saturnalia might actually lighten the
load. So, here’s an idea: enjoy a blow-out holiday season, trash the diet, run
up the credit cards, get crazy and be of good cheer (the more raucous,
no-holds-barred, the better)…then,
come back to reality and get to work on making the next year better. It can be better.
A prosperous, peaceful, hopeful and joyful Hanukkah, Solstice, Christmas, Kwanzaa, "Festivus" (whatever you celebrate) to all -- see you in the New Year!!
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. Contact Raye by comment here, or at: robertsonraye@gmail.com.
© Raye Robertson 2016. All
rights reserved.
[1] Baigent,
Campion and Harvey, Mundane Astrology, Thorsons,
Inc., London, 1984, pp. 249-250.
[2] Nicholas
Campion, The Book of World Horoscopes, The
Wessex Astrologer, Bournemouth, UK. 4th printing revised, 2004.
Chart #165, p. 166-69.
[3] Campion,
Ibid., Chart #179, p. 179-80.
[4] Campion,
Ibid., Chart #420a, p. 424-427.
