The Cosmos is displaying a
distinctly wry sense of humor this week—Mercury has been transiting
Capricorn—so when I caught a feature on the Sunday news about the latest
“craze,” Goat Yoga, I thought, “sure, why not?!”
It’s easy to stress out over all the Capricorn energy afloat right now, so
if having a flock of Capricorn’s creatures climb on your back during “downward
Dog” is uplifting (getting peed on is considered lucky, by the way), bring it
on!
In an off-the-wall kind of way, it
seems Goat Yoga is about getting right with Saturn: the “studio” is
often a barn, a corral, or a field—what better way to reconnect with good old
Capricornian “earth?”
We often underestimate the
therapeutic potential of “getting right” with Saturn—and heaven knows, there
aren’t enough goats to go around for everyone, but the obligation remains. Capricorn
times do not take “no” for an answer. Whatever Saturn prompts us to work on, the
rewards are many for stepping up and being responsible—for
responding to inner imperatives that
we find reflected in our outer lives.
Importantly, this Saturnian process
operates in tandem on both personal and collective levels—and it doesn’t
function in a vacuum. At its most fundamental, Saturn works in concert
with the Moon to bridge these levels in our daily lives, for the degree
to which we mature and evolve as adults on the personal level mirrors how we contribute to society, as well. Strong families make for strong societies—ultimately,
the lesson carried by the Capricorn-Cancer
“power axis.”
Unfortunately, this relationship is
being twisted for all its worth in today’s debate about so-called “chain
migration” (aka, "family reunification" policy).
A few thoughts about
Saturn in a nation’s chart are in order before we get into the weeds here. First, it doesn't function in a vacuum, and one of its most important "partners" is the nation's Moon. In fact, to understand Saturn's role in a nation's evolution, we need to consider its fundamental relationship with that nation’s lunar dynamics. Simply put, if a nation is ultimately defined, as ours is, by its
form of government, then the way in which a nation’s Saturn and Moon
(the People) work together has existential implications.
Towards the end of
this post, we’ll explore these key dynamics in Triwheel #1, which sets our
national chart next to Trump’s nativity and a chart for the so-called “government
shutdown” that took effect last Friday at midnight.
Before we go there, however, let's establish a framework for this "personal/collective" astrological discussion.
Traditionally, mundane Saturn
represents a nation’s legislative and judiciary systems, and insofar as
the “rule of law” is a structural/hierarchical issue, this is exactly true. We’ve
been witnessing the Capricorn stress on our Sibly Saturn all weekend, with the
“shutdown” debacle (more on the particular stressors ahead). However, Saturn/Capricorn
energies touch every dimension of practical reality, national and personal, so what we’re seeing in
D.C. reflects a myriad of other structural challenges.
For instance, we tend to
astrologically overlook the physical
infrastructure of the nation, and as we’ve so painfully learned with this past
year of record-breaking weather disasters, impaired or damaged infrastructure
is a great hardship on and expense to the nation’s resources. It’s also an
area of great national responsibility and
accountability—both deeply Saturnian
concerns.
If we accept that our nation is essentially a collective in which we all participate, and in which we all have a fundamental stake, then Saturnian responsibility is an inevitable dimension of public life. This reality is illustrated very nicely by our Sibly Moon in collective-oriented Aquarius (co-ruled by Saturn and Uranus).
If we accept that our nation is essentially a collective in which we all participate, and in which we all have a fundamental stake, then Saturnian responsibility is an inevitable dimension of public life. This reality is illustrated very nicely by our Sibly Moon in collective-oriented Aquarius (co-ruled by Saturn and Uranus).
Our collective relationship with the
natural world and science (simply the
study of that world) is also a Saturn/Capricorn dimension of public life: Saturn
is now transiting earthy Capricorn, so it’s no surprise that the White House recently
announced a new policy of drilling offshore along both the east and west
coasts. It is the natural resources offered by the earth (Saturn/Capricorn also
rules agriculture) that feed us and fuel our world and our nation.
As co-ruler
of Aquarius with Uranus, Saturn energizes science,
technologies and engineering—critical for processing and putting those
resources to use. Indeed, these three areas are fundamental requirements for any
functioning nation and used to be American claims to fame.
Even so, Trump’s plans for exploiting every
last drop of the earth’s resources is (IMHO) a Plutonian misuse of those resources (Pluto has been transiting square Sibly
Saturn). Thankfully, several states have begun using our Saturnian
judiciary to challenge
the White House plan.
The mandate to conserve this earth for the long-term is a Saturnian responsibility
that extends to all nations, but getting
with that program requires reining in the capitalist obsession with short-term economic
growth (Jupiter and Saturn have been tussling over this
forever). Perhaps the same “NIMBY” (“not in my back yard”) outcries that met
wind-farm developers will win out against the oil derricks, as well, but this
is no formula for a long-term, Capricorn-worthy plan.
How about using Saturnian diligence
and discipline, informed with Uranian ingenuity and Jupiterian vision, to
engineer a sustainable, “clean energy” economy that works for all, deep into the future?
While Neptune and Pluto
co-rule raw subterranean resources such as oil and gas, together, Saturn
and Uranus
rule any electricity-powered technologies involved in resource extraction, not
to mention critical technological infrastructures like the nation’s electric
grids, broadband/cable networks, and on and on.
Federal support for research
and development in these critical areas is a matter of responsibility, and a matter of national defense. As Saturn transits deeper into
Capricorn in the coming two years and opposes our Sibly Sun, we’re going to
wish that we had better maintained our infrastructure systems.
Saturn,
the Moon & the Social Contract
Another area in which Saturn
and the Moon bridge our personal and collective levels concerns the
so-called “Social Contract” that exists between a nation’s people and its
government. Relationships built around just and lawful systems of government
are clearly implicated here—Saturn is exalted in Venusian Libra.
A quick Wikipedia summary will explain:
“In both moral and political philosophy, the social contract
or political contract is a theory or model, originating during the Age of Enlightenment, that typically addresses
the questions of the origin of society and the legitimacy of the authority of the state
over the individual.[1]
Social contract arguments typically posit that individuals have consented,
either explicitly or tacitly, to surrender some of their freedoms and
submit to the authority of the ruler or magistrate (or to the decision of a
majority), in exchange for protection of their remaining rights. The
question of the relation between natural and legal rights, therefore, is
often an aspect of social contract theory.”
How appropriate that our Sibly
Moon falls in Aquarius, co-ruled by Saturn and Uranus—we’ve
had a love/hate relationship with authority from the get-go, with our
revolutionary foundation. Those revolutionary impulses seem to have come back
to haunt us lately, however, when our “social contract” seems very unclear and dangerously
shaky.
In fact, the relationship between
individual and state power is very imbalanced and chaotic at the moment
(witness the immigration debates and other racially-biased policies), as our
fair-minded Libra Saturn is under siege from a heavy Capricorn Pluto
and a compromising Pisces Neptune (more ahead on this).
Our Sibly Sun in Moon-disposed
Cancer is showing similar stress, opposed by Capricorn Pluto—all this while our
Aquarius Moon (tightly opposed by Trump’s overbearing Leo Mars)
is caught in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” relationship to D.C.
power. Do we define our civic duty as a pragmatic affair, supporting the status
quo as it’s currently operating in D.C., or do we exercise our right (perhaps
even duty) to overturn it all and start over?
Of course, doing anything coherently is the
challenge—witness the government “shutdown” that was (at this writing) averted
for another 3 weeks. Are we under any illusions
that the divisive disconnects on national priorities—or even reality—that underlie this dysfunction
will be solved in 3 short weeks?
So, it’s hard to miss that in
Trump’s America, the “social contract” is seriously frayed. Of course, some important
elements of this contract are foundational
(Saturn) matters—like our three-branch system of government, purposely designed
by our Constitution’s framers so that power is distributed fairly, and that
excesses or imbalances in one branch over the others can be checked.
Beyond that ingenious (but
increasingly fragile) design, however, we might wonder how much of what’s going
on in D.C. today we actually consented to!
For starters, there’s the Electoral College—perhaps originally a good idea, but
an idea that’s been tremendously corrupted.
The College was originally designed
to counter any Neptunian attempt at illiterate “mob rule,” but did the Founders
foresee Neptune’s “plan B,” the contagious phenomena of gerrymandering
and social media distortion campaigns? Together, those two have turned this
threat of “mob rule” into a systematically-deployed tool for disenfranchising
one party’s voters.
Even though it probably originates
in the White House, the state-level is where a lot of the Neptunian wizardry
happens: quite recently, two
state-level decisions were tipped in favor of the GOP by decidedly
biased-looking court decisions.
Fairness in government is, again, an
important Saturnian issue, and when less stressed out, our Sibly Saturn has made much
better use of its position in mid-Libra. As we speak, however, players on the
Federal level are busily working to undo the equitable, Saturnian voting systems
our American social contract relies on.
Unable to accept that he didn’t win the
popular vote in 2016, but frustrated with law suits arising from his so-called
“voter fraud commission,” Trump recently suspended the commission. The news
then reported that he was, instead, putting the Department of Homeland
Security in charge of “securing” the vote (for guess who?).
Saturn honors just, balanced (again,
think Libra) limitations on power,
while the agents of Neptune and Pluto undermine such limits and
unleash what Trump biographer David Cay Johnston
calls “political termites” on the hard timbers of our system. Even as those
difficult transits have been bearing dubious fruit, though, voter suppression
efforts have also inspired broad-based resistance: many of this weekend’s
impressive Women’s Marches featured an important voter registration component.
Saturn and Pluto in combination are
very demanding and potentially very destructive—we’ll be talking a lot more
about this as Saturn transits into conjunction with Pluto (January, 2020) and
begins their new cycle at 22°+Capricorn,
but these energies also place powerful tools in the hands of committed
change-makers. What they promote, however, is not simply change for the sake of
change—that’s requires a more prominent Uranus.
Today’s protests (you go, ladies!!), grassroots voter
support efforts and the broader, so-called Resistance
are all about the grassroots exerting its will and safeguarding what is worth safeguarding from the quickly-ending 1982
Saturn-Pluto
cycle. This is a good time to purge the detritus our system has produced over these
past few decades, but we need to also protect our essential values and
institutions. Trump’s campaign promised to “drain the swamp,” but now we have a
better idea of what he meant by that catchy tagline.
Neptune is playing an important background
role in this purging process, of course. For instance, voter suppression may
sound like Saturn’s handiwork, but in fact, it amounts to a distortion and
corruption of our system, especially as it’s evolved through civil rights
struggles, etc. These attempts at suppression actually go back several years
before Trump, and have aimed to grab power unlawfully by simply “washing away”
healthy institutional checks and balances and by simply “overturning” Saturnian
rules like the 1965 Voting
Rights Act.
Since he took office, Trump has simply deepened the threat by
promoting a twisted, Neptunian narrative involving “voter fraud.” Trump’s ideas
about what elements of our system should be purged are clearly troubling.
Biwheel #1: (inner wheel) Donald
J. Trump, June 14, 1946, 10:54 a.m. DST, Jamaica, NY; (outer wheel) Barack Obama, August 4, 1961, 7:24 p.m. ST, Honolulu, Hawaii. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node.
So, it’s no coincidence that Trump’s
major “accomplishment” during his first year in office was in rolling back
Obama-era Executive Orders and dismantling Obama-era protections for consumers,
health care recipients, workers and the environment. President Obama (outer wheel, Biwheel #1 above) naturally respects the power of regulations with his dignified late Capricorn
Saturn
(conjunct Sibly Pluto, interestingly enough); Trump is natally averse to restrictions of any sort—especially
Obama’s—with his Cancer Saturn (see inner wheel, Biwheel #1 above), falling opposite Obama’s Saturn!
Trump’s aversion reflects his Saturn
being disposed by a libertine (and in his case, duplicitous) Sagittarius Moon,
so we can see where his habit of pushing every limit comes from. The list is
long…where do we start?
We can’t consider Trump’s role in
all this destruction without looking to the impacts Neptune and Pluto
have been having on our Sibly Sun (the Executive and the
nation-at-large). Indeed, Pluto has been transiting square our
Sibly
Saturn and opposed to Sibly Sun for the better part of a
year—all the while Neptune has been hitting our Saturn by inconjunct and
our Sun
by a delusion-inducing trine. It’s been
a cosmic siege of sorts that Trump’s presence in the White House embodies to a
tee, and there’s more to come. It’s important that we navigate this “purging”
period consciously, and that we don’t
just “let things happen.”
Reaping
what we sow
Of course, Trump didn’t unleash the
destruction we’ve seen to our system all by himself—he had some powerful help
that Special Counsel Mueller is investigating as we speak. Even that won’t
reveal all the puzzle pieces,
however: the deep pit of dysfunction that mires D.C. today developed over decades of extreme polarization and the
dismantling of government infrastructures (Congressional committees, the
primary election process, etc.). Importantly, these were infrastructures and
mechanisms that used to reward our
politicians for compromising across party lines.
In fact, these party lines have been
cynically used and abused (Neptune-Pluto) to undermine the
Saturnian balance and limitation-setting function of government. Many forces
converged to produce this damage, however the phenomenon of gerrymandering has been one of the most pernicious. It’s a:
“…practice intended to establish a political advantage for a
particular party or group by manipulating district boundaries. The resulting district
is known as a gerrymander (/ˈdʒɛriˌmændər/
or /ˈɡɛriˌmændər/), however that word is also a verb
for the process.[1][2]
The term gerrymandering has negative connotations. Two principal tactics
are used in gerrymandering: "cracking" (i.e. diluting the voting
power of the opposing party's supporters across many districts) and
"packing" (concentrating the opposing party's voting power in one
district to reduce their voting power in other districts).[3]”
Thankfully, the Pennsylvania Supreme
Court just struck down that state GOP’s gerrymandering practices and
mandated that they redraw voting districts more equitably. More and more the
Courts—including the U.S. Supreme Court—will be charged with settling critical
issues like this. We need to hope that the Neptune-Pluto “termites” haven’t penetrated
too deeply into this Saturnian pillar of our 3-branched system. Time will tell.
On
building walls
It’s a curious irony that the more
unstable and dysfunctional our internal structures feel, the more we are
coached to fear the outside world. As
we’ll see, the current government shutdown debates have hinged on the two sides
of this inner/outer relationship: the border wall Trump promised his base to
keep out what he called Mexican “rapists,” basically criminalizing all immigrants by association and playing into xenophobic fears, and the
moral imperative we have as a nation to find a fair solution for immigration in
general, and for the DACA “Dreamers” in particular.
In fact, Trump’s “Make America Great
Again” theme is all about rolling back the border-eroding forces of globalization,
about “correcting” the increasing diversity in our population (which threatens
the white majority…bring on the Norwegians!), and about stoking the fear that’s
very real in many people’s minds (and certainly in Trump’s) that we’re somehow
losing “control” of what it means to be American.
Interestingly, political scientist
Wendy Brown has written an entire book
on this topic, on what is actually a global “wall-building” phenomenon these
days. Entitled Walled States, Waning
Sovereignty, Brown’s work makes the case that while this drive to fortify
national borders has very real world consequences for the fates of displaced
people, it’s also a mostly “theatrical” reaction to unsettling globalized forces:
“Thus, while nation-state walls are far from historically
novel, they carry a unique function and signification today, staging political
sovereignty that globalization is draining out of state institutions, providing
a visual emblem of power and protection that states increasingly cannot
provide, and generating an imaginary of stable and homogenous (and sometimes
white supremacist) nationhood concretely eroded by global flows of capital,
power, people, finance, ideas, cultures, religions, goods, and terror. As political responses to what is
psychically, economically and politically unmanageable in a globalized world,
walls constitute a spectacular screen for fantasies of restored sovereign
potency and national purity [emphasis mine].”[1]
In other words, Trump’s plans to
“Make America Great Again” almost demand that he stage the scene in the most
theatrical and tangible terms possible. The “big, beautiful wall” he wants will
probably not stop any of the global
forces that he and his followers fear (for different reasons however; he probably profits from them on Wall Street), but it will play well in a political ad!
Unfortunately, no amount of
wall-building is going to stuff the globalized forces unleashed by Uranus
and Neptune
in 1993 (as they began their new cycle in Capricorn) back in the proverbial bottle. And we
can’t have it both ways, although Trump will continue talking out of both sides of his mouth, pretending that he can make it so: we can’t enjoy the perks of free-flowing capital and
the world of cheap goods and Internet-driven commerce this Capricorn cycle has
spawned, while remaining locked into a protective Cancerian shell. Why would we want to inhabit a world that turns entirely around "Us v. Them?"
Again, Moon/Cancer
and Saturn/Capricorn
provide the poles around which our personal/social dilemmas are wound.
Clearly, Trump’s decision to promote
a border wall tapped into the pervasive anxiety he and his base share about
security and “waning sovereignty,” (his “America First” platform expresses this
fear to a tee), but actually draining resources from other badly-needed
projects to do so is another story.
Nevertheless, with his Saturn
in self-protective Cancer (see middle wheel, Triwheel #1 below), now being
opposed by transiting Pluto, Trump is likely seized with
anxiety over getting that wall built.
Taking
a pulse: the Shutdown
My apologies for the long introduction, but we now have a
framework for considering the government shutdown chart—surely a good lens on
the dysfunction we’ve been discussing, even though it’s been temporarily resolved.
This chart will also illustrate the key Saturn-Moon relationship we have at
stake. Namely, what can the government shutdown, which took effect at midnight
this past Friday night, tell us about our frayed “social contract,” and about
the true threats to our national sovereignty?
The key players in the shutdown
situation are, of course, the Sibly chart, Donald Trump, and the Shutdown event
itself.
Triwheel
#1: (inner wheel) USA Sibly
Chart, July 4, 1776, 5:10 p.m. LMT, Philadelphia, PA; (middle wheel) Donald
J. Trump, June 14, 1946, 10:54 a.m. DST, Jamaica, NY; (outer wheel) DC
Shutdown, January 20, 2018, 12:00 a.m. (midnight) ST, Washington, D.C. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node.
Interchart
T-Square: Shutdown Mercury-Pluto
(Capricorn) opposes Sibly Sun/Mercury (Cancer), Trump Saturn-Venus (Cancer) and
Shutdown MC (Cancer); this axis is squared by Shutdown Uranus-Sibly Chiron
(Aries). MSNBC’s Joe
Scarborough has just called the 3-day shutdown “a phony war,” and this tense
configuration certainly illustrates that possibility. Was the shutdown simply a
public relations ploy, a three-day long, carefully staged “blame game?” Or was
it the opening salvo in a more serious election “war” looming ahead?
Mercury and Pluto certainly can manipulate a message for effect, and
judging from the steady media assault (from both sides) and the White House
phone message seeking to blame the Dems for the White House phones going
unanswered, there was a lot of
staging going on. If the “shoe fits…”
Trump’s insecurities (Cancer Saturn-Venus)
were also a big part of the story, however, and these are driving a far more
serious situation. Clearly, some part of his inability to stay on message and
agree on a fix prior to the shutdown was about those fears. He was certainly
caught between conflicting priorities—should he satisfy his right-wing base’s thirst
for that “Wall,” or opt for looking like the great “deal maker” he claims to be? In the
end, using thug tactics (like the “chain migration” ad his campaign released in
the last day of the shutdown) took the place of respectable compromise, and
that’s a troubling sign of things to come.
Mixing his toxic and distorted campaign
messages into the negotiations was a sign that he’s willing to go extremely low
to get what he wants. I’ve discussed in other posts how personal this immigration issue is for him, but it’s worth
reiterating here because this is where his
Moon
(disposing his Cancer points) and Saturn impact our national
well-being.
He’s doing this by effectively cutting
the legs out from under our national Saturn-Moon
priorities and replacing their concerns with his own “wounded” ones. Notice
that his Jupiter-Chiron squares our Sibly Sun and conjoins our Sibly
Saturn (Libra), and that all the Libra points are now squared by Shutdown
Pluto (Capricorn) and quincunxed by Shutdown
Neptune (Pisces).
Rolling back regulations,
undermining Constitutional norms and guarantees, and planting individuals in
Cabinet positions who are ideologically opposed to the missions of those
positions (as he's done in the Interior Department, the EPA, the Labor Dept., and more) all fit this insidious “makeover.”
All this, while Trump’s thin-skinned
Saturn-Venus
oppose our Sibly Pluto and his domineering Leo Mars opposes our Sibly
Moon (Aquarius)— IMHO, we
have reason to be concerned about this “phony war.”
Interchart
Water “Kite:” Shutdown Jupiter-Mars
(Scorpio) trines the Cancer points discussed above and trines Shutdown Chiron
(Pisces); this grand water trine is intersected by Cancer-Capricorn oppositions
(also discussed above). It should also be noted that the same grand
trine is also bisected by oppositions
between Trump’s Taurus MC and the Scorpio Shutdown Jupiter-Mars, and
these bisections happen because sextiles are woven into the mix between the
Scorpio and Capricorn points, and between the Cancer and Taurus points. Clearly,
this is complicated, but let’s try to simplify:
Trump
won this shutdown round because his goals were supported by the Scorpio
points, and because he has no qualms about tapping into our national “dark side”
to get what he wants (Shutdown Scorpio points trine Shutdown
Chiron—over Sibly 12th-4th houses). He may have
even felt a bit restrained in this process (Shutdown Mars squares his Leo
Mars), yet this square may also explain why the actions he did take over the past week or two have
been even more vicious than usual (the “shithole” debacle included).
With this incredible mix of
energies, we can only imagine what Trump’s participation in the World Economic
Forum in Davos, Switzerland will look like this week. Here’s one interesting perspective:
“But analysts say there’s another possible explanation for
his decision to attend [Davos]: that Trump wants to confront the elites who
despise him on their own turf. ‘It’s like going into the belly of the beast and
laying out his alternative vision of the world,’ Michael Froman, who served as
US trade representative under Obama and has attended Davos in the past, told
me. ‘I wouldn’t expect him to alter his message or pull his punches when it
comes to America First.’”
With Mars remaining square to
his Mars
all week, we can expect that his behavior will be belligerent, but again, perhaps more
restrained than we’d expect. While he talks a good game about wanting to roll
back globalization, he knows how profitable it is for him (Saturn-Venus) as well.
Besides, CNNMoney reports
that Davos “loves” his tax cut bill, and he will probably want to take some
bows.
Final
thoughts
If there’s anything we’ve learned in
the past year with the Trump White House, it’s that Trump wants to have things “both
ways” at all times, and that the constant dilemmas posed by his duplicity and
divisiveness do weaken the structures we count on to preserve a balanced
distribution of power.
Dealing with a “child” who plays both sides against the
middle to get what he wants is a difficult dynamic many Saturn/Capricorn-Moon/Cancer
families have to navigate, but it’s considerably more difficult when the “child” is a strongly mutable type (Trump’s
Gemini-Sagittarius points) who’s mastered the art of stirring chaos for effect, and who respects no limits to his personal behavior.
It’s easy, in fact, to imagine from
his behavior and demeanor that Trump is developmentally stuck in the mindset of
a willful young boy who (as youngsters often do) “figures out” the power dynamics
between his parents and then determines how he might be able to play them to procure a desperately-desired
prize (be it unconditional love—he can “shoot someone on 5th avenue
and they’ll still vote for him”—a shiny new bicycle, etc.).
Unfortunately, the “parents”
in question in our real-world situation are the institutional pillars of our
democracy, including the collective will of
“We the People,” and there’s too much at stake to play such manipulative games.
Goat Yoga, anyone?!
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 2018. All
rights reserved.
[1]
Wendy Brown, Walled States, Waning
Sovereignty, Zone Books, NY, 2nd paperback edition, 2017, p. 9.