Wednesday, May 12, 2021

Eclipsing Reality: May's truth & misinformation circus comes to town

The Cosmos is certainly a bizarre playground these days—watching the past couple weeks of news has been like wandering in a scary fantasy land and keeping one anxious eye on the exit...

 

Astrologically, we’re living in a time of heady, forward-leaning drives, ambitious visions and unapologetic idealism, but we’re also living through a period in which the forces of deception and misinformation have been weaponized to either support or sabotage those ambitions. We’re in a housing boom (some say it’s already a “bubble”), with buyers taking outrageous risks with paying far more than the true value of homes. It seems the memory of thousands of homeowners being caught “under water” on their mortgages after the 2008 bust has faded, but far too many women haven’t been able to go back to work to help their families afford those homes because child care can cost as much as sending a child to college. Those who stand in the way of affordable child care in this nation have an agenda, clearly, and it’s not the good of the People.  

Scene of Arizona's suspect vote audit.
Another example -- Biden is trying hard to instill confidence in the American public that they can trust his leadership, so the GOP stages a phony 2020 vote audit in Arizona that’s designed to further undermine confidence in its repeatedly-litigated and essentially fraud-free 2020 results. Voter suppression laws built around Trump’s “Big Lie” about the election are passing in states across the nation and any Republican telling the truth these days about that election—notably the courageous Rep. Liz Cheney (R, Wyoming)—is fighting for their career life—if not their actual life.  

Even though their attacks are often against others who are just trying to exercise their First Amendment freedoms by protesting and telling inconvenient truths, like the “election was not stolen,” Trump extremists clearly consider telling that truth off limits. Of course, these same extremists often want First Amendment cover when they issue death threats or storm the Capitol or commit hate crimes against minorities—actions that have much more destructive consequences than simply expecting Trump to grow up and accept a loss.  

Yes, we’ve fallen through Neptune’s proverbial “looking glass,” and there’s a fine line out there between politics and what one observer says resembles “a ‘mass psychosis’...an epidemic of madness, [which] occurs when a large portion of society loses touch with reality and descends into delusions.” The hysteria of witch hunts dotted throughout history is an example of such madness, not to mention other descents into madness like lynch mobs and more broadly, the 20th century’s insane embrace of totalitarianism. Not surprisingly, these examples of madness are always more likely to happen when telling the truth becomes optional.   

I might be wearing Neptune’s “rose-colored glasses,” but I have to believe that despite all this historical baggage, the facts and the truth will eventually prevail in our public discourse...because on some level, survival demands that they do. I think about this every time I see the percentage of vaccinated Michiganders tick up by one. Unless there’s true clinical madness involved, in time, the realities of self-preservation and family concerns have to take precedence over the luxury of conspiracy mongering, cynicism and delusions. I often wonder how perfectly rational people will feel one day when they look back at how they were duped into following QAnon nonsense. IMHO, we need to help each other out here because the stakes this time around are just too great...there but for the grace of... 

 As I see it, all of this is an important key to understanding this month’s lunar eclipse on May 26th—a chart we’ll consider in depth below.  

Lunar (Full Moon) eclipses are by definition oppositional, so it’s not surprising that the key players in this week’s news all seem to be caught up on one side of our current Truth/Misinformation quandary or the other. Opposite the already-mentioned Liz Cheney in terms of integrity and commitment to truth-telling is Trump booster and lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, notable for his raving and often incoherent attempts to undermine and overturn Biden’s election. He was also heavily involved in the drama around Trump’s first impeachment over inappropriate dealings with Ukraine designed to fraudulently undermine Biden’s candidacy.  Trouble is, Giuliani may have committed a number of Federal crimes during that quest on Trump’s behalf, and the legal piper is coming due. And there’s no longer much that Trump can do to help without implicating himself or Giuliani or both.  

Also making the news this week are defendants charged in the Capitol insurrection who are trying to use a closely-related “Foxitis” or “Fox News made me do it” defense. In truth, Fox is being sued for billions by two different voting technologies companies (Dominion and Smartmatic) who claim Fox news personalities defamed and economically damaged their businesses by consistently and repeatedly lying about their systems in order to amplify Trump’s election fraud claims.  If Fox can be held responsible for damages to their businesses, maybe Trump’s ability to lie with impunity is developing a few cracks as well? Not coincidentally, both entities’ charts bear some connection to the upcoming eclipse.  

As for the inevitable First Amendment defense Fox is trying to use, maybe this eclipse season signals that it’s time for the Supreme Court to define with some kind of clarity which kind of lying is protected and which isn’t, and, critically...why! Pinch me...why do we have to have this conversation? When did telling the truth, especially when the lies are designed to destroy other people’s reputations and livelihoods, etc., become so absurdly and legally optional? Unfortunately, with 2022 being an election year, it’s not likely that Jupiter’s Pisces ingress happening this week (exact on 5/13) will improve upon this “Truth/Misinformation” situation.  

IMHO, if the Supreme Court values our coherence and durability as a nation, not to mention our image on the world stage, it will take this issue more seriously: it's hard to believe that the First Amendment was ever intended to support the absurd twisting and undermining of democracy as we know it, but then we are dealing with Neptune and Pluto here, so we can take nothing for granted. If I understood his first State of the Union speech correctly; Biden seems to understand the depths of this problem, so I’m cautiously optimistic that he’ll be weighing in on these matters over time because there are real world consequences for tolerating the duplicity we’ve been experiencing.   

 

The FBI has warned us repeatedly of such consequences. In a statement before Congress in April 2021, its leaders said: 

“In 2020, the FBI assessed the greatest terrorism threat to the United States was from lone actors or small cells who typically radicalize online and look to attack soft targets with easily accessible weapons; we remain confident in that assessment today. We see these threats manifested within both domestic violent extremists (DVEs) and homegrown violent extremists (HVEs), two distinct threats, both of which are located primarily in the United States and most frequently radicalize and mobilize to violence on their own.” 

The January 6th insurrection is a key event the FBI often cites in regards to the seriousness of this domestic terrorist threat, but what remains unstated here is that what “radicalizes” people online is the sheer volume and perniciousness of the lies and conspiracy theories promoted online for destructive, often racially-tinged purposes. Personally, I think it’s fair to ask who stands to gain from promoting all this divisiveness, don’t you? 

We’ve certainly found out in Michigan that the divisiveness and terrorism threats can’t be taken lightly—14 men known for connections to the right-wing militia group Wolverine Watchmen are now charged with plotting to kidnap and kill our Governor Gretchen Whitmer (and perhaps even her family) before the last election. On the national level, threats to members of Congress are up by over 100% in the past year, according to the U.S. Capitol Police. So, in keeping with our bizarre "looking glass” realities these days, bold plans for massive infrastructure improvements that would create thousands of good paying jobs now co-exist with intense and growing domestic terrorist threats against the very people who want to move the nation forward in this way.  

Since those infrastructure jobs would benefit a lot of Trump supporters (who gained very little from Trump’s massive tax cuts to the wealthiest), we have to hope that maybe the anger underlying the violence will subside as conditions improve for many of them. Things could improve considerably for a lot of people who need a living wage job under Biden’s programs, but those who want to prevent Biden’s presidency from succeeding might just have to cooperate for a minute. Is there a chance that this will happen in the coming days? Or will the Dems have to go it alone? Hope springs eternal.  

 

Eclipses play out over time in more than one way.

The eclipse process 

This month’s Sagittarius lunar eclipse may hold some clues to all of the above issues. But before we check out that chart, it’s worth framing our discussion a bit. Eclipse expert Celeste Teal points out an essential fact about eclipses that’s easy to forget: that they’re processes, not simply one-off events. Energies stimulated by one eclipse can be carried forward in others and by transits (especially by Mars) that re-energize an eclipse point, and by Saturn, that can “end” or resolve the issues raised by that particular eclipse cycle.1    

This makes past eclipses falling around the same Zodiac degrees pertinent to and perhaps even part of the same ongoing “process” represented by any one lunar eclipse. This is a useful way to think about the eclipse approaching this May 26th.  Consider, for instance, that the lunar eclipse on May 25, 2013 also fell very near the same Sagittarius-Gemini degrees that this upcoming May 26th, 2021 eclipse will, and that, similar to this month’s (Chart #1 below), that 2013 eclipse axis also tightly squared Neptune, which had ingressed Pisces in 2011. Checking the Time.com top 10 news stories record (among other records), 2013 was pretty intense and volatile, and it was also totally relevant to today’s challenges.  

Some of the most momentous 2013 events were: the wildly destructive tornado in Moore, Oklahoma, the WHO’s identification of the portentous MERS coronavirus; the Boston Marathon bombing; the disclosure of U.S. mass surveillance practices by former CIA analyst Edward Snowden, who then fled to Russia; the failure of gun control reform in Congress in the wake of the Newtown massacre of 25 school children and teachers; the bankruptcy filing of the city of Detroit; the acquittal of self-appointed vigilante George Zimmerman for the killing of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin; the shutdown of the Federal Government over conservative attempts to force the gutting of the Affordable Care Act; the U.S. Supreme Court’s recognition of same-sex marriages; the Syrian government's mass gassing of over one thousand of its own people, and so on.  

Clearly, these events expressed the instability and chaos of a fiery, mutable eclipse, especially one heavily influenced by a mutable Neptune. So not surprisingly, we’ve seen those 2013 events echoed in more recent times: Snowden has remained in Russia, despite its invasion of Ukraine, its illegal appropriation of Crimean territory, and its cyber-interference into every U.S. presidential election since; the WHO proclaimed the COVID-19 coronavirus (far more contagious than MERS) a global pandemic in March 2020; the genocidal Syrian Civil War is still unresolved, as the region is now roiling under another vicious war and humanitarian disaster in Yemen. And in the most recent variation on a repeating theme, a Russia-based cyber-criminal gang is taking responsibility for a crippling ransomware attack on the Colonial Oil pipeline.  

All of the major developments we’ve seen, in other words, capture divisive, often corrupt and heavy-handed uses of power and ideologically-fueled passion. They’re also long-term situations that seem to defy resolution, unfolding in waves, subsiding and resurging periodically. So, Neptunian in character and designed to keep the nations that are most impacted by these dynamics in a hard-to-define, prolonged state of turmoil. Kind of what we’ve seen in our U.S. politics since Donald Trump came on the scene?   

 

 

May 26, 2021 lunar eclipse 

So, with that potent history in mind, and being mindful that eclipses represent a “process,” let’s examine the chart for this month’s lunar eclipse on the 26th 

 


Chart #1. Lunar Eclipse, May 26, 2021, 7:13:43 a.m. DST, Washington, D.C. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node. All charts cast on Kepler 8.0, courtesy of Cosmic Patterns Software.  

Moon opposes Sun (Sagittarius-Gemini) t-squares Jupiter-MC (Pisces). The Sun is further eclipsed, or at least contained by its 12th house position here as well, but notice the Moon’s 6th house placement, reinforcing the current focus on labor and health issues. Lies and deception aren’t the only thing holding us back at the moment, clearly—the pandemic is also a dominant, ongoing challenge and it isn’t yet solved, by any stretch. Jupiter’s Pisces position could, in fact, indicate an unwelcome surge, which wouldn’t be surprising given that so many states are now re-opening and inviting summer tourism, etc. Pandemic fatigue is real, it’s dangerous and it could undermine the progress we’re now enjoying with COVID numbers.  

Pres. Biden is proactively involved in our COVID response.
Jupiter’s 9th house placement here reminds us that the pandemic is an international crisis that demands we broaden the scope of our efforts. Biden’s attempting to do that by suggesting that vaccine manufacturers should waive their patent rights so more countries can produce their own versions and take care of more people’s needs. It’s a controversial proposal on Biden’s part that challenges the powerful Big Pharma lobby to step up more altruistically than usual, but it should score some much-needed diplomatic points at a time when those are sorely lacking.  

It’s significant here that Jupiter is the eclipse ruler of the Sagittarius Moon, and that Neptune disposes Jupiter in that same house (and will soon meet up with Jupiter for a new cycle) at the same time it conjoins Pisces Pallas. To my eye this represents a serious need to focus on exercising Compassion in the service of Justice as a healing alternative to the all-too-slippery default of Lies/Misinformation in the service of overreaching Ambition. You might be aware that this Pisces position exactly opposes Sibly Neptune, so representing a half-return to that Sibly position. Perhaps the urgency of choosing between the Neptunian options named above can help us navigate not just this Neptune passage, but also the Pluto return that is simultaneously unfolding?  

This may be a sneak peek of important times ahead, as Jupiter conjoins Neptune at 23°+Pisces in early 2022 for their new cycle.  

Meanwhile, the square here between this Neptune-Pallas conjunction and Venus-Mercury (Gemini) rising in the 12th house suggests a certain amount of pent-up turmoil in our public discourse, and the duplicity and misinformation we’ve discussed earlier could be a key challenge. Since these Gemini points tie in so tightly with Trump’s Sun-No. Node-Uranus conjunction and oppose his Sagittarius Moon2, we can probably guess where some of that turmoil will originate. His 2024 campaign is literally gestating (12th house) from Mar-a-Lago as we speak, and nothing can be taken for granted there. More on the challenges related to these Gemini placements below.  

Nodal axis (Gemini-Sagittarius) t-squares Vesta (Virgo). Eclipses are considered more powerful, the closer the Nodal axis lies to them, but here we see that the axis falls 6°+degrees away from both Moon and Sun, so this eclipse may be less focused on producing immediate events and more focused on producing a certain atmospheric shift that remains open to interpretation. The square we see here with Vesta suggests that households will do just that...apply those shifting energies to their own lives as they see most beneficial.  

Mars opposes Pluto (Cancer-Capricorn). Significantly, both ends of this opposition fall in a stressful aspect with the ruler of this chart (Mercury) and the ruler of the eclipse itself (Jupiter). Mars rules the Scorpio 6th house, within which the Sagittarius Moon falls, signaling its key role in keeping the eclipse point active. You might recall that the Sibly chart’s Chiron falls at 20°+Aries, so the power struggle contained within this cardinal opposition is fed by and perhaps exacerbates historical wounds. In a stunning affirmation of the importance of this 20°+Aries to this eclipse chart on its own merits, however, consider that a long list of midpoints fall within 3° of that sensitive degree: Neptune/Uranus and Venus/Saturn at 17°+, Sun/Jupiter and Mercury/Saturn at 18°, Jupiter/No. Node at 21°+, and Mars/Pluto at 23°+ Aries. The 10th house placement of all these sensitive points suggests that the U.S. will engage in a very public and potentially violent struggle to resolve deep-rooted historical wounds and social dilemmas. Ideological struggles, expressed in potentially repressive policies are also possible with Neptune/Uranus and Venus/Saturn here.  

 

Conflicts over balance of power and leadership issues and positions are likely with (Sun/Jupiter) here; in fact, the GOP is already engaged in similar skirmishes with its intent to expel Liz Cheney from her House GOP leadership position. I suspect the Biden Executive branch will also at some point disagree vehemently with the Supreme Court over key issues—something to watch. With Jupiter/Node in this Aries position, we may see tension-producing religious interference in legal matters--no surprise, there are increasingly loud voices among right-wing conservatives who are trying to “prove” that the U.S. is, by definition, a Christian nation. This could be just the latest frontier for growing right-wing xenophobia, but we ignore this one at our peril.  

So the process this eclipse seems to represent presents numerous possibilities, but we can compress them into two main camps: one predictably dark, with an inward-looking attempt to rewrite history to suit extremist right-wing sensibilities, and one potentially lighter, with an outward-looking attempt to put the nation on stronger footing in the world community (Jupiter in 9th rules and t-squares the eclipse axis).  

Saturn (Aquarius) squares Uranus (Taurus); Saturn trines and sextiles the Nodes (Gemini-Sagittarius).  Uranus creates more stressful semi-sextile/inconjunct aspects with the Nodes, of course, but the trine and sextile by Saturn suggest that there will be some accord between Congress and other institutions and the trends driving these programs. I see this as a sort of “blessing” on Biden’s infrastructure programs, but not one that says their roll-out will be entirely smooth—Uranus may cause some frustrations.  Saturn also widely trines Venus-Mercury (Gemini), so diplomatic and promotional efforts (the “narrative”) required to elicit public support should unfold fairly smoothly.  

I am concerned that those Gemini points conjoin Sibly Mars (and disturbingly, Trump’s Gemini placements-charts not shown) and t-square the Neptune-Sibly Neptune opposition we discussed earlier—confronting the Trump “misinformation” machine will be an ongoing challenge, and we can expect that the U.S. military (Sibly Mars) could end up being entangled in it all. See inner wheel, Biwheel #1 below for the Sibly chart.   

To see how these dynamics could manifest in the real lives of some of today’s newsmakers and the nation, let’s consider a few quick examples.  

 


On the Truth/Misinformation merry-go-round 

As noted earlier, two key newsmakers really embody the Truth/Misinformation issues that are so at the heart of this mutable May 26th eclipse: former Trump lawyer and all-round booster, Rudy Giuliani, and Wyoming Representative and current third in the line of GOP leadership, Liz Cheney, who has now been stripped of her party chairmanship because she refuses to promote Trump’s “Big Lie” about the election.  

Forbes magazine laid out the legal challenges former Trump lawyer and all-round booster Rudy Giuliani is confronting these days very succinctly here; it’s a list that captures well why we aren’t hearing much from either one of them right now. There are calls being litigated to disbar Giuliani in the state of New York over ethics violations; he’s under investigation for potentially illegal activities in Ukraine, and he, along with Trump, are being sued for “violat[ing] the Ku Klux Klan Act in their attempt to stop the election results from being certified by Congress.” The trouble doesn’t stop there: Giuliani is also defending himself from defamation lawsuits filed by Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic, and Trump has officially disavowed any legal connections with him (of course), refusing to help pay for any of Giuliani’s legal expenses—so basically, another hapless supporter, thrown under the bus.  

Cheney is a likely challenger to Trump going forward.
Then there’s Liz Cheney, one the GOP’s last-remaining truth tellers in D.C. In her own words, her dilemma with GOP leadership reflects a dangerous turning point for the GOP at large and the nation. From her recent editorial in the Washington Post: 

“...On the floor of the House on Jan. 13, [House leader Kevin] McCarthy said: “The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.” Now, McCarthy has changed his story. 

I am a conservative Republican, and the most conservative of conservative values is reverence for the rule of law. Each of us swears an oath before God to uphold our Constitution. The electoral college has spoken. More than 60 state and federal courts, including multiple Trump-appointed judges, have rejected the former president’s arguments, and refused to overturn election results. That is the rule of law; that is our constitutional system for resolving claims of election fraud.” 

Cheney calls on the GOP to embrace two clear actions going forward: to support the Justice Department’s ongoing investigations into the January 6th attack on the Capitol, and to help make them as comprehensive, transparent and objective as possible. In other words, chase down the Truth and don’t give up until it’s well-understood. She also calls on the GOP to fully support a 9/11-style investigation into the January 6th event that is equally transparent and objective, with no interference from Congress. So, get to the Facts, with no compromises.  

Still, GOP House leader Kevin McCarthy acts as if Cheney’s calling for outrageous sacrifices on the GOP’s part, even though she’s voiced her concerns in much the same language that he did immediately after the insurrection. One trip to Mar-a-Lago was all it took to set aside whatever concern for the truth he had.  

So, we’ll consider both Giuliani’s and Cheney’s nativities in reference to the coming eclipse, and since they’re both involved in DC affairs, we’ll place these charts next to the Sibly chart (Triwheels #1 and #2 below). To keep this part of the exploration relatively brief, we’ll discuss key highlights and try to minimize any repetition with Chart #1 above.   

Giuliani “spin machine” goes silent 

 

 
Triwheel #1: (inner wheel) U.S. (Sibly) chart, July 4, 1776, 5:10 p.m. LMT, Philadelphia, PA; (middle wheel) Rudy Giuliani, May 28, 1944, 2:30 p.m. War Time, Brooklyn, NYC, NY. Rodden: A; (outer wheel) Lunar Eclipse, May 26, 2021, 7:13:43 a.m. DST, Washington, D.C.. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node. All charts cast on Kepler 8.0, courtesy of Cosmic Patterns Software. 

Eclipse Sun conjoins Giuliani Sun-Uranus conjunction (all Gemini); Giuliani Uranus conjoins Sibly Uranus and Eclipse No. Node (all Gemini). There’s little doubt here that this eclipse will impact Giuliani somehow—he's completely, shockingly (natal Uranus) invested in the Gemini duplicity of the man he was serving (Trump), not to mention that Party that insists of promoting that duplicity. With his connection to Sibly Uranus, it clear he’s been consciously attempting to radically influence the perspectives of the American People (Sibly Uranus disposes Sibly Aquarius Moon); the Eclipse No. Node conjunct these points suggests that he senses a trend that he can leverage to his purpose. All of these points also trine Sibly Saturn (Libra), so the drama unfolding in Congress over Cheney’s resistance to the Giuliani-promoted misinformation machine is right on target.  

Several late 2020 reports in the press related that Giuliani was being “played” by “Russian assets in Ukraine” and used to carry misinformation back to Trump, warnings that Trump reportedly shrugged off; it was no secret Giuliani’s job was to dig up dirt—manufactured or not—on Biden overseas. So the intrigue hinted at by all the Gemini energies converging between the middle and outer wheels here is probably exactly what it looks like. Eclipse Venus-Mercury-ASC conjoins Giuliani Pallas, Saturn-MC (all Gemini)--he really appears to the be the “Man of the Hour,” especially in regards to legal matters and career crisis (Saturn-MC and Pallas).  

Rudy Giuliani in crisis?
The way in which all this ties in so tightly with Sibly Mars (Gemini) and its t-square to Sibly Neptune opposite Eclipse Neptune (Virgo-Pisces) makes it clear that Giuliani is merely an agent for the nation’s truth/misinformation crisis and for the transformation that is needed (Eclipse Pluto conjoins Sibly Pluto, which trines/sextiles the Neptune/Neptune axis).   

Interestingly, Eclipse Uranus (Taurus) exactly conjoins Giuliani’s Mercury (Taurus), which disposes all that Gemini energy in his chart, so his ability to traffic in misinformation may be seriously upset, despite how he will likely continue catalyzing our ongoing Pluto-return transformation.  

I expect the turmoil Giuliani experiences will either reflect or spill over into how Congress proceeds to handle its business as well. Sibly Saturn (Libra) forms the focal planet of a tense interchart Yod with Eclipse Uranus (Taurus) and Eclipse Chiron (Aries). Will the GOP really attempt to rewrite history in some substantive way for the sake of Trump’s “Big Lie” narrative? Attempts by extreme voices to officially embrace White supremacist narratives about America’s “uniquely Anglo-Saxon traditions” have found their way into this “Big Lie” narrative, a conflation I would presume is for the sake of justifying the raft of race-tinged voter suppression laws seeking passage out there as we speak. It’s no secret many Republicans have racialized their politics because that’s the only way they see themselves winning in the future, but our impending Sibly Chiron return in April, 2024 suggests that this is a seriously unsustainable direction.  

Eclipse Chiron also squares Sibly Sun (Cancer), so the wounds being ripped open by the GOP’s inching ever closer to a White supremacist agenda on behalf of Trump can have real consequences for the nation, and no one should expect Americans of color to cooperate in attempts to bring back Jim Crow times. That bridge was crossed in the 1960s, and justice demands that we move forward, not backward. Eclipse Chiron opposes Sibly Saturn (Libra)--it’s likely we’ll see some relevant cases in the Supreme Court in regards to all this.  

 

So bottom line, Giuliani played his role in our national Truth/Misinformation saga, but his usefulness or ability to influence much going forward may be coming to an end because he’s likely to have his own problems to address. It’ll be interesting to see how dedicated he will be to Trump’s “Big Lie” now that he’s been thrown under the bus. 

Liz Cheney into the fray 

 

Triwheel #2: (inner wheel) U.S. (Sibly) chart, July 4, 1776, 5:10 p.m. LMT, Philadelphia, PA; (middle wheel) Elizabeth Cheney, July 28, 1966, 12 p.m. DST (no exact time), Madison, WI (outer wheel) Lunar Eclipse, May 26, 2021, 7:13:43 a.m. DST, Washington, D.C. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node. All charts cast on Kepler 8.0, courtesy of Cosmic Patterns Software. 

First, let’s see how the eclipse itself ties into Cheney’s chart—unfortunately, we only have a noon chart for her, so we can’t say much about her angles or Moon placement. I’ve looked at the full range of degrees the Moon would have covered that day, however, and we can say with assurance that her Moon is in Sagittarius, which puts her in emotional alignment with Trump and his similar Moon. This also puts her Moon opposite Eclipse Venus-Mercury-ASC in Gemini, not to mention Sibly Mars (Gemini). Even more directly, the Eclipse Sun (Gemini) sextiles her Sun (Leo), while the Eclipse Moon trines that same point. Cheney’s Sun conjoins Sibly No. Node (Leo) as well, so she may be the right person at the right time to tackle this misinformation crisis for the nation. Eclipse Mars (Cancer) conjoins her Jupiter (and possibly MC), so she’s motivated to get this right.  

Despite no sign that she’s going to be spared the Party’s wrath over her defense of the truth about the election, there are signs the American people will sympathize and reward her efforts—her Jupiter also conjoins Sibly Sun and Mercury (Cancer) and opposes Sibly and Eclipse Pluto (Capricorn)—whether she’s in Party leadership or not, I doubt we’ve heard the last of her. Another sign that this may be true is that her Uranus-Neptune conjunction (Virgo) ties in fairly tightly with Sibly Neptune’s opposition to Eclipse Neptune-Pallas (Pisces) and trines Sibly and Eclipse Pluto (Capricorn). She’s from the same important change-making generation that V.P. Kamala Harris is, but they're clearly on opposite ideological sides on a lot of issues, including those regarding race-based social justice.  

This difficulty is reinforced by Cheney’s Jupiter t-square Sibly Chiron (Aries) opposite Sibly Saturn (Libra). She may be a latter-day hero because of her stand on the “Big Lie”--interestingly, she also has a Jupiter-Neptune Rx trine from Cancer to Scorpio, so we can’t take her ability to spin the truth when it serves her agenda. Bottom line, she’s a diehard conservative who may take stands that are inconvenient for her party when the situation merits, but no one should mistake that for her changing her ideological stripes. Of course, there’s a legitimate place in our politics for a conservative party, but a party that threatens our very Constitution by trying to overturn legitimate elections and stop eligible voters from voting is not that.  

 

 

Final thoughts 

Breaking news this morning indicates the House GOP caucus has ousted Liz Cheney from her leadership position because she dares to tell the truth and oppose Trump's drive for a right-wing populist autocracy in this nation. Needless to say, there’s a lot going on right now as a consequence of today’s threats to democracy, both domestic and international, and the upcoming eclipse will speak to many of them.--we're in the midst of a process, after all, and it's a consequential one. The tug of war we’ve been having between Truth and Misinformation is unfortunately likely to persist; however, we all have a say in giving deceptive and/or manipulative players free rein to divide and destroy our societies or not. That may sound overstated, but I say this because Neptune and Pluto often act as a tag-team, and we’re definitely experiencing their joint impact now: Neptune erodes and weakens that which Pluto then purges and transforms. 

So, is democracy itself a thing of the past that stands to be purged (or as the cartoon suggests, "developed" out of existence?), as autocrats like Putin and Xi Jing Ping seem to think? Or can we renew and refresh its relevance for a new century to prove the naysayers wrong? No amount of empty flag-waving is going to make this happen, however; it's more likely to be a re-engineering project of considerable dimensions.  

The new cycle due to launch between Jupiter and Neptune in 2022 will be in the sign both planets co-rule, Pisces, so the weaponizing of “alternative realities” and “Looking Glass” politics will undoubtedly continue: as we’ve seen, Neptune’s super-power is to undermine and erode structures and institutions, and there’s little doubt that today’s skillful Neptunian practitioners (like Trump) are targeting democratic (small “d”) institutions, like the right to vote. Thankfully, we now enjoy a strong Saturn, which can make progress towards building that renewed future if we all get behind and push in that direction. This is not really the partisan project it's been made to look like (Neptune and Pluto couldn't care less); it's an existential one, as conservative Liz Cheney and others like her know full well.

Despite Jupiter-Neptune’s (especially in Pisces) potential for compassion, abundance and spiritual idealism, the Western world’s capitalist economies rarely embrace those lofty expressions when less idealistic, more lucrative options exist for the upper crust. There’s a reason these energies in Pisces are often associated with corrupt practices—the sky’s the limit with an unleashed and dignified Jupiter-Neptune pairing and the temptations are all too real to channel the benefits of that cosmic largesse in corrupt ways. Normal capitalist practices routinely flirt with this: the benefits are mostly surged to the top, following the well-worn Big Finance patterns of the past 30 years, as opposed to “lifting all boats” by flooding the grass roots and creating the conditions for prosperity there. Rice-growing regions of the world depend upon being able to manage the yearly monsoon rains that flood their fields (Jupiter-Neptune together fit well here), and maybe there's some wisdom in that for the times ahead. 

Bottom line, success will come from knowing how to use the incredible generosity of Nature and the Cosmos in productive, collectively beneficial ways. It takes compassion and idealism, but it also takes integrity in the face of enormous pressure to avoid the corruption pitfalls. That, I believe, is the most urgent challenge we will face ahead.   


 

Mundane astrology as if People mattered!

 

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, U.S. history, culture and media, the astrology of generations, and public concerns such as education and health. She’s published articles on these topics in several key astrology journals over the years, including most recently, the TMA blog. See the Publications tab on this site for a list of Raye’s recent E-books on current topics, including the newly-released title, The Mundane Moon: an evolving cosmic story for “We the People.”    

For information about individual chart readings, contact: robertsonraye@gmail.com. 

© Raye Robertson 2021. All rights reserved.