Monday, August 9, 2021

Fatal intransigence & generational pain: the response to Delta & the Saturn-Uranus 3Q

 

In June of this year, Saturn and Uranus—transiting within orb of a waning square from Aquarius to Taurus since this past February—formed the first of two additional exact squares, made possible by the respective retrograde periods of both planets: 

first, with Saturn in retrograde state to Uranus’s direct motion, and in late December, we’ll see Uranus edging backwards into a final conjunction with its direct-moving partner Saturn for the year.  In fact, this December meet-up will be the final exact square these two will form for the rest of their current waning 3Q phase, which lasts into mid-2032 when they convene a new cycle in Gemini. Bottom line, there may be a special note of urgency in what they have to say this coming December.  

It’s not difficult to see how the themes of this hard-nosed 3Q phase are playing out in the news these days—social unrest, as covered in the last post here, is certainly one of those themes, but perhaps even more troublesome are the reactions that expressions of unrest often elicit under this cycle. Crackdowns from on high, trends toward more controlling, even fascistic, patriarchal authoritarianism. A toxic, overdone form of “Law and Order” (a nation-wide campaign to suppress the votes of select groups comes to mind) can end up being the mantra during such times, and as deceptively simple and relatable as the desire for harmony and order in our societies may be, this cycle isn’t particularly looking for harmony—it's looking to control and squash (Saturn) the rebellious impulses of those who are crying out for serious change (Uranus), even if that change is essential for the public’s health and well-being.  

Florida governor, Ron De Santis
The irony today is that those who are at the vanguard of this drive for more control, as the Trump-infected GOP and especially hot-heads like Florida governor Ron DeSantis are—are disguising their aims behind a call for “freedom” from government mandating any behaviors relative to the COVID pandemic. Rather, as Vanity Fair puts it in a recent article: 

“In a push designed to treat unvaccinated Americans like an oppressed group, Republicans are reportedly pursuing a series of bills that would make it illegal to ‘discriminate’ against those who choose not to get the COVID-19 vaccine. At least one state—Montana—has already signed such a bill into law, and according to Axios, others around the country are following suit.” 

In Florida, DeSantis has signed an executive order that threatens to withdraw funding from any Florida school district that mandates mask-wearing and/or vaccinations among children. Texas governor Greg Abbott has done likewise, despite the increasing support from some GOP quarters for vaccination mandates. So, this is the plan in Florida and Texas? To get their states’ kids together in confined spaces with scant protection and see what happens? In fact, cases among Florida children are overwhelming the statespediatric hospitals as we speak, and the schools haven’t even opened yet, so what is likely to happen when they do? 

Pediatric hospitals in both FL and TX are crowded.
It’s frankly mind-boggling that these two governors (I’d like to know how their children are being protected) seem to be gleefully taking on the role of oppressor in their states by limiting how schools and companies can respond to their own particular needs. The Delta variant is ripping through all American states these days, even states that are trying to follow CDC guidelines closely; as noted, several more reasonable (and perhaps politically ambitious) GOP leaders, in fact, have finally come out in favor of vaccination, despite the politicization of the issue within their party. Why would anyone want to throw up obstacles to doing the best we can do with this dangerous situation? The cynic in me wants to know if DeSantis and other GOP governors like him are trying to spike their states’ COVID numbers with infected, sick and dead children just so they (in their twisted political logic) have tragedies to pin on Biden in the upcoming election. Incredibly, DeSantis lent credence to that cynicism this week. 

The facts say that immigrants and would-be refugees coming to our borders have little or nothing to do with Florida’s spiking numbers, but that doesn’t stop DeSantis from trying to deflect his own irresponsible handling of it all onto Biden’s immigration policies. Even if a small number of cases do come across our borders, shouldn’t that make DeSantis more determined to take all measures possible to protect his own state’s children instead of playing the blame game? Or, as Biden pleaded with governors like him, to simply “get out of the way” of those who will take this crisis seriously?  

Relinquish a bit of his power for the sake of the greater good? Not in Ron DeSantis’s vocabulary, apparently—especially under the potentially toxic, patriarchal energies of this hard-nosed Saturn-Uranus cycle. 

The distortion and misinformation being supported by a potent Pisces Neptune (we’re also in the throes of a Saturn-Neptune waning 3Q) isn’t making things easier, of course. In fact, I’d say these two cycles are enabling each other in very undesirable ways at the moment. The Looking Glass view of “freedom” and “discrimination” being pushed by these intransigent GOP governors literally makes no sense; at the very least, it’s using a specious “straw man” argument (the virus is the “enemy,” not the vaccine!) to undermine and obstruct any sense of community responsibility. We are in drastic need of that higher response to these cycles at this time.  

We see evidence of this higher path in our exhausted, overstretched healthcare workers and in those who are confronting state-level efforts to roll back voting rights and working to protect state election systems from those deep-pocketed forces trying to distort them beyond recognition, but a full-throated, widespread mobilization against collective threats like COVID, climate change and creeping authoritarianism is eerily elusive. The reason is fairly easy to see and painful to watch: the threat, this time, is more within us than outside of us. That’s perhaps in the nature of waning Saturn cycles, especially when Saturn is transiting retrograde; this internalizes the sometimes-brute force of Saturn-Uranus and the potentially corrupting force of Saturn-Neptune a bit too much for comfort.   

As for the GOP’s irrational discrimination claims, discrimination looks to harm, deprive or limit people for the sake of someone else’s power. Here, people have a choice to empower themselves—with proven vaccines readily available, they don’t have to put themselves in harm’s way (or even worse, to potentially die) from COVID. And while I get that people may have been dealing with oppressive-feeling issues even before the pandemic hit, when did expecting people to take care of their own children’s wellbeing—at the at least partial expense of the government, we might add—become such a negative? Whole families have been known to get sick and even hospitalized all at once with this pandemic—why take that chance out of some distorted sense of “freedom?” I could go on...you get the picture! 

Some news commentators suggest that all this controversy over mask and vaccine mandates is about “owning” Biden and the “Libs.” Are people really willing to die and/or leave their families vulnerable, just to serve GOP power players?  

The fact that anyone would see political advantage in such an irresponsible stance is chilling at best. For politicians to mask their determined desire to wrest control of the nation by any means necessary behind all this phony concern for “freedom” is, I would say, one of the darkest uses possible for this fixed Saturn-Uranus 3Q phase. That a giant helping of Neptunian misinformation is stirred in for good measure is no consolation. 

 

 

The Astrology

So, even though the two cycles we’ve touched upon here are definitely enmeshed and difficult to separate out at times, my aim today is to focus in on the Saturn-Uranus 3Q dynamic that seems to be manifesting a bit too ominously for comfort these days: to do this, we’ll set a chart for the June Saturn-Uranus conjunction against a noon chart for Governor DeSantis, whose birth date and place I have taken from Wikipedia. I’m using the example of DeSantis here for two reasons: first, for his individual actions and confrontational, behavior, as seen in the news, and second, for the important generational issues raised by juxtaposing his chart against the cycle chart. Simply put, the belligerent, outspoken stance that DeSantis has adopted could very well be represented more broadly in a least a segment of his Pluto-in-Libra generation cohort. More on that ahead.  

Let’s examine the biwheel.

 


Biwheel #1. (inner wheel) Ron DeSantis, September 14, 1978, 12:00 p.m. DST, Jacksonville, FL; (outer wheel) Saturn Rx-90-Uranus, June 14, 2021, 10:01:16 p.m. DST, Washington, D.C.. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node. All charts cast on Kepler 8.0 and courtesy of Cosmic Patterns Software. 

Fixed Grand Cross: Saturn-90-Uranus (SU) Moon opposes SU Saturn (L eo-Aquarius); this axis squares SU Uranus opposite DeSantis Uranus (Taurus-Scorpio). This incredibly belligerent fixed grand cross (among the most tense configurations imaginable) aptly represents the dynamics of the frustrating/defiant DeSantis-Biden standoff, not to mention DeSantis’s general belligerent refusal to accept any calls to collective responsibility. Notice that this Saturn-Uranus square transpired on Donald Trump’s exact birthday, and while that isn’t entirely relevant here, considering DeSantis’s total alignment with Trump’s mindset and his “ism,” and considering DeSantis’s known desire to run for president if his mentor Trump doesn’t in 2024, it’s an “interesting” coincidence.  

Focusing in on the near exact Uranus-Uranus opposition cutting through this biwheel tells us that at age 43, the governor is experiencing the same major mid-life outer planetary transits that his entire generation is faced with these days. For many, this is a time of extraordinary tension and upheaval, often related to a deep sense of regret for unfulfilled goals and dreams. Considering Uranus was in fixed Scorpio when this cohort was born, and considering that our younger generations have been through decades of deferred or frustrated dreams due to one crisis after another, it’s perhaps no surprise that the tension of this transit is manifesting in extreme ways: lashing out, belligerence, disruptive actions, seething anger and turning inward in toxic ways. COVID threatens to derail their dreams even further, and the older generation really doesn’t have any solutions for them now. Could this be part of why social discourse seems to have become so nasty and "thuggish” (for want of a better word) these days? 

Creation spiritualist Matthew Fox listed a host of related problems we’re experiencing these days that definitely rings a bell with the cycle we’re considering here: 

“The temptation to authoritarianism; the unleashing of the reptilian brain; the apparent failure of education to teach values that matter; and the toxicity of a distorted understanding of what healthy masculinity is about and how to learn it.” 

I find it hard to argue with any of Fox's assessments here: he may be picking up on the hard-nosed Saturn-Pluto cycle that just launched in January 2020 in Capricorn when he brings up the “unleashing of” the vicious, survivalist “reptilian brain,” but this Saturn-Uranus 3Q is certainly implicated as well. It’s inspiring a heavy patriarchal backlash to common sense and life-affirming problem solving, and a big part of that could come down to the extremes of toxic masculinity. In Florida, right-wing radio host Dick Farrel died from COVID after months of counseling his audience to resist vaccination at all costs (he relented finally, when it was too late). Other public figures in Florida have apparently said they would “die” before taking the vaccine and making the Dow slip a few points (since when are those two related?). Toxic hubris, anyone?  

Death cult?
In fact, some commentators suggest that we’re seeing the development of a “death cult” around this issue. Even Trump himself came out on Fox recently and said he would support vaccinations—primarily, because he can take credit for the vaccines’ initial development—but also because he doesn’t want anything “bad to happen to” his people. Then, per the usual, he qualified his remarks by playing the other side of the argument, saying “freedom” was key. Funny he’s not coming out regularly in public statements so “his people” would really start to get the idea and begin trusting the vaccinations. Let’s add “deliberately divisive” to that toxic hubris, shall we? 

Returning to the situation with our 40-something generation, the theme of deferred dreams also relates to frustrated political ambitions: undoubtedly, many of this 40-something generation feel that the Boomer generation has had a lock on the White House and top Congressional positions (with officials from both parties) for far too long, and that probably feels like having to answer to their parents when it’s long past time to assume the reins of power. The nation may not be ready for a Pluto-in-Libra leader at the top, but it’s clearly ready to move on from the “OK, Boomers!” 

Yet, DeSantis (and probably other would-be GOP presidential candidates) are poised to defer their ambitions yet again if Trump (IMHO, the Boomer generation’s dark Lord) snaps his fingers. If they really want to take the reins, maybe they should start by doing a little less bowing and scraping at the altar of Mar-a-Lago? 

The drama inherent whenever power and control passes between generations is clearly alive and well here. This drama is also evoked by this 40-something generation’s Pluto square Pluto (Libra-Capricon) passage. Notice that Trump’s eldest son, Donald Jr, was born in 1977, with basically the same array of outer planetary sign placements as we’re considering here, so it‘s anyone’s guess whether there’s been a real generational hand-off of power over the family businesses from father to sons in the Trump family. Will Junior inherit anything of value from his dad, or will he be more likely to suffer blame and worse for his father’s alleged crimes, as it appears their doggedly loyal CEO, Allen Weisselberg is about to do?  

Bernie Madoff's sons Mark and Andrew both died shortly after their dad's downfall.   
 

Trump may attempt to protect his sons from accountability, but my guess is that his sons have no illusions about who will pay the price if and when legal push comes to shove. This sorry situation reminds me of the tragedies that attended the exposure of NY financier Bernie Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme in 2008—both his sons’ careers in Finance (they were both in their 40s when this happened) were destroyed, and both succumbed to the stress and died within the next 6 years, one by suicide and one by cancer. Unfortunately, Saturn in combination with the outer planets, not to mention the heaviness of the Pluto-square-Pluto transit, can thrust the “sins of the fathers” on their children. 

Notice that the outer wheel’s Saturn-Uranus square (Taurus-Aquarius) ties into DeSantis’s Chiron (Taurus): this is yet another stressful generational passage that deserves a closer look, for the sake of all our 40-somethings. Chiron expert Martin Lass has this to say about Saturn squaring natal Chiron: 

“Saturn impels us, during this transit, to take stock, accept responsibility, cease blaming, start attending to and working seriously with our Wounds, blockages and unresolved issues, as indicated by natal Chiron.”i 

This is certainly relevant here, as is what Lass says about Uranus conjoining natal Chiron: 

“Uranus shines a direct light upon our Woundedness, as indicated by natal Chiron, encouraging us to attend to what we see. Uranus encourages us to bring our consciousness around our Wounds and issues into a higher state, seeing the perfection and Plan behind it all. This is a major healing transit.”ii 

We can’t know what DeSantis’s deeper issues are from this type of reading, but if his behavior as governor is any reflection of what’s going on in that generational cohort, it seems to me that we need to be concerned with helping them work out this healing in a positive, life-affirming way. Many of them are also experiencing their mid-life generational Neptune-square-Neptune transit from Sagittarius to Pisces, so the dangers of getting caught up in distorted views of reality and the resulting challenges of taking on the power that they will need to wield for the good of all going forward are very real. My three oldest sons were born during that Libra Pluto/Scorpio Uranus/Sagittarius Neptune 1970s period, so I can’t help but be concerned about these issues as well.  

Shakespeare's King Lear and daughter Cordelia. 
 

Yet, tackling the challenges this generation (and by association, the nation-writ-large) is facing isn’t easy when a fixed grand cross like we’re seeing as the backbone of this tense biwheel is exerting such control. The works of Shakespeare and the librettos of high Opera are filled with aging monarchs experiencing the treacherous betrayal of their children and courtiers; the generational transfer of power (the Saturn-Uranus cycle speaks to this also) is an ever-present challenge and one that seems to be reaching a major crossroads these days. The tension is not just being felt on the GOP side right now, however—as one commentator put it, the Dems are simply “done” with toxic power players like NY governor, Andrew Cuomo--his career now feeling pathetic compared to his storied father's political legacy. Impeachment proceedings are being launched as we speak.

Perhaps explaining the sparks that flew between DeSantis and Biden this past week, it isn’t helping that SU Mars (Leo) conjoins DeSantis’s Jupiter (Leo), triggering his arrogant lashing out at Biden for Florida's failure to contain the current Delta wave of cases. How can a would-be “King” (Leo) take responsibility? Other heads may roll, scapegoats will be assigned, but the King’s pride must be protected at all costs!  

This need to further his own agenda and to be considered above blame took special hold with this Saturn-Uranus square transit: the conjunction of SU Mars with DeSantis’s Jupiter opposes SU Pluto (Rx, Capricorn) and this axis squares his natal Mars (late Libra), so it’s a highly-motivating cardinal T-square. Notice we’re not looking at DeSantis’s house placements here—we have no birth time to verify those.  

The involvement of SU Pluto (Rx, Capricorn) here also reflects that there are deep pockets supporting DeSantis’s deflection crusade, probably the same deep pockets that investigative reporter Jane Mayer has revealed in her stunning August 9th article in the New Yorker, “The Big Money behind the Big Lie.” Well worth a read! 

Interchart Grand Mutable Cross: SU Neptune-Pallas (Pisces) conjoins DeSantis So. Node-Sun (Pisces) and opposes DeSantis No. Node and Sun (Virgo); this axis squares SU Sun (Gemini) opposite DeSantis Neptune-Vesta (Sagittarius). Clearly, DeSantis’s sense of Self and Ego are being chaotically driven by the politically-convenient delusions about “Justice” that are swirling about these days, in support of the “Big Lie.” It’s not surprising at all that his chart is shot through with mutable energies; this makes a public show of intransigence even more of a “survivalist” tactic. 

 


The December Saturn-90-UranusRx  

I began this piece talking about there being two final exact squares left in our ongoing Saturn-Uranus 3Q phase, and we’ve seen above how that looked with Saturn transiting retrograde, squaring Uranus moving in direct motion. Bottom line, the potentials for both disruption and an enlightened awakening are possible, depending upon how we muster the inward-looking forces of Saturn during these times. Obviously, the frantic work that’s being done to pass Biden’s huge infrastructure bill right now is part of this picture—it's an inward-looking, but an extremely needed and positive expression of this cycle. So how will all this look when Saturn and Uranus—this time with Uranus Rx—form their final square of this 3Q in December of this year?  Let’s take a quick look at that December chart on its own, set for Washington, D.C., and pull out a few highlights.  

 

 

Chart #1. Sat-90-UraRx, December 24, 2021, 2:11:31 a.m. ST, Washington, D.C. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node. All charts cast on Kepler 8.0 and courtesy of Cosmic Patterns Software. 

In keeping with the times that we seem to be living through, this chart also features a fixed grand cross, this time setting the late Aquarius Jupiter-Leo Moon opposition against a staunch Taurus-Scorpio Nodal axis. With all the volatility and chaos of the past few years, it shouldn’t be surprising that the trend in public discourse (Nodal axis) is towards wanting more stability and security. The 40-something generation we’ve been considering above isn’t the only cohort looking to make up for lost time, financially, emotionally and every which way. From the Moon’s placement at the top of the chart, it seems the People really want to be the center of attention for the duration of this Saturn-Uranus 3Q. And so they should—notice that Jupiter conjoins Sibly Moon (People) here, too (Sibly chart not shown); not only should we take the limelight, but we should prosper from the changes that promise to transpire in the coming few years. Like better infrastructure, and more people in our communities working higher paying jobs as a result. It’s interesting that this chart catches Jupiter just before it re-enters Pisces after a long retrograde passage.  

Also supporting the notion that the People could be the main focus of attention is the placement of so many planets in the loser hemisphere (with Moon at the top, we have a sort of “bucket” configuration here). This probably makes sense on the level of politics, if we consider that 2022 will be a very hotly contested and consequential midterm election year—the politicians will be falling all over themselves trying to please people!  

It’s hard to say if the pandemic will have the same kind of chokehold on the nation then as it’s having now—Neptune is still holding office from its watery kingdom of Pisces here, and it is still squaring Vesta (Sagittarius), impacting households and jobs (Neptune rules 6th), which could still feel fairly uncertain or in flux.  

We will want to keep an eye on what’s going on with the grass roots when this square transpires—Saturn occupies the 4th and squares Uranus Rx in the 7th house of enemies and allies. A lot has been said about homegrown terrorist groups lately, and with a fiery Mars (Sagittarius) ruling that 7th house, it’s possible we could see a replay of the January 6th insurrection at some point. The House Select Committee will continue looking to get to the bottom of what caused that eruption, of course, but what will we do with the information that finally falls into place? IMHO, if those responsible for inspiring and militating for it (and those who paid for it-notice that an Rx Venus conjoins Pluto in Capricorn here) can’t be brought to justice, we’ll be in worse shape than we thought. We can expect that the powerful deep pockets represented by those Capricorn points will be funding (trine) whatever Taurus No. Node trend holds sway. One way or another, the issue of election security going forward must be primary; more on this in a future post! 

 

 Final thoughts 

I learned this week that my Texas grandchildren will be expected to go back to school without the protection of a mask mandate, or else. Basically, if my son and daughter-in-law decide to err on the side of safety and keep their children home, they will be left to muddle through, home-schooling them for yet another year, this time at their own expense, because the State has drastically cut the funding for virtual schooling and it’s more than likely that over-stretched teachers will have only meager resources to offer those who stay home. So yes, the lunacy happening out there is personal for me, and as a former educator myself, I can’t help but feel that the Texas state government is guilty not only of irresponsibly handling the pandemic, but of a gross dereliction of duty when it comes to education.   

As we know also, Texas is only one of many GOP-led states that is trying to repress voter access—again, on the basis of the “Big Lie” that appears to see voter fraud in every non-white vote cast. That’s not about any actual malfeasance (this has been proven by neutral investigations repeatedly, to no avail); that’s about the pernicious view that non-white votes are somehow, by dint of who cast them, illegitimate. IMHO, one of the higher uses of what remains of the tense Saturn 3Q cycles we’ve discussed here would be to call out the “race card” for what it is when it’s staring us in the face, and to stop making excuses for it. Repressing voter access, especially on that basis, is a clear move towards authoritarianism—and responding to this challenge under the current cycles is a real, but essential challenge for all of us. We need to heal that troubled heritage of ours, not repackage it for another tortured run.  

We can do better, don’t you think? 



 

i. Martin Lass, Musings of a Rogue Comet: Chiron, Planet of Healing, Galactic Publications, Nyack, NY, 2001, p. 464.

ii. Ibid, p. 451.

Raye Robertson is a practicing astrologer, writer and former educator. A graduate of the Faculty of Astrological Studies (U.K.), she 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. For information about individual chart readings, contact: robertsonraye@gmail.com. 

© Raye Robertson 2021. All rights reserved.