Jupiter and Changes in the US "Face" of Government, Part II

Hey, What Happened to My Presidential Prediction?

(Part I, The "failed prediction")

(PERSPECTIVES: November 16, 2004)

There’s a daunting client on the couch in the astrologer’s consulting room: The Psyche of the United States.

Uncle Sam needs to take in the spectrum of troubles that come with an archetypally unwieldy time. Astrology enables a view of these events, where like the stage, a metaphor offers an examination of these archetypes in the form of plays. To see the actions of opposing camps by fundamental, archetypal characters, we must adjust our sight to imagine them strutting upon the stage of history, just as they once did for Shakespeare, and for all time.

Pluto in the nation’s chart describes that craggy spot of potent secrets hidden in the Realm of Shades, where Hades holds court in the “lower world,” and separates us from the warm, sunny satisfactions of the “upper world.” These worlds are bound by the river Styx, the Underworld’s own river of hatred, swearing, and cursing, going “down,” to the Land of No Return. The US chart crosses these boundaries, so that in the Good Ol’ US of A, hatred is back. In Ohio, investigators seek evidence of fraud. In Palestine, mourners investigate whether Yasser Arafat was poisoned. In the Ukraine the People decide whether fraud warrants a new elections. In every conflict, deep suspicions abound.

In contrasting developments, the US courts may continue the unheeding political thumbing of their nose at the Patriot Act and the so-called “War on Drugs.” (“In October 2002, the court said physicians can talk to patients about the pros and cons of medical http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/10/25/gvsd1025.htm) marijuana without fear of the government taking away their DEA numbers.”

Simultaneously, Congress has been confronted by corruption in the Federal Drug Administration. The free-market profit of a billion in sales for pain-killer Vioxx, an approved “medicine” which, over the two years it ruled the night-time advertising slot on TV, took 55,000 Americans into the Underworld without consequence.

On the opposite (since this is the dance of opposites and extremes at every corner) the limitations of a home-grown “scheduled substance” is positioned against the private (read: secret) recommendations of physicians and the confidentiality of patients. Profitability from marijuana by the major players may be its only “black mark,” as it has never been known as a killer, even while its soothing attributes are grown in sunny backyards next to the basil and thyme.

Uncle Sam, what we have here is a fully polarized national horoscope. Saturn is seniors and aging, an archetype known as “The Old Man.” Saturn’s reactions are to “clamp down,” and shake mightily in the face of his Dark Nemesis, demanding greater command over “security.”

In the Medieval picture “Wheel of Fortune,” three monkeys perch on the cross angles within the wheel: one “rising” or climbing, one on top or “crowned,” and the last one sliding down toward his death. At the bottom of the wheel is the area of Pluto, marked by a skull. The Saturnian phobia is anything nearing this cold, settled place and when the anxieties are flush as they are now, the struggles of the still-living yet near-death elderly archetype are famous: “Feets don’t fail me now,” he screams.

These two archetypal camps preside over all this national stuff, one dangerous and passing, the other liberating, but only birthing. The passing danger is characterized by Saturn. We see him as he Stiff-necked and Super-consistent. “No Flip-flops!” he admonishes. In this drama, his opponent is not Senator Kerry, but Pluto who hides in the inky murk of the Underworld. Saturn is passing the 180th degree opposing the US chart's own Pluto in Capricorn, a marker which gives a new spin to how Bush's camp got the "country vote." Pluto is a moniker of powers which move in hidden ways. Similarly, the terrorists have their secret hiding places. But so does the White House! On 09/11 we were asking, “Where’s Dick Cheney, where’s the Veep?” On 11/03/04 the same people were asking, “What happened?”

That the 09/11 commission did nothing to satisfy that question allows its ghosts to linger: They must still “go somewhere.” The question therefore becomes the subject of blogs and newsletters on the Internet, conjecture and conspiracy mixed with tiny, yet potent facts. Locked up with all the other items stored secretly with a padlock marked, “National Security,” such material is no longer so “transparent” in the Solar regions of daily newspapers and television reporting. They are therefore “sacrifices” to the Underworld. The consultant must remind her client that what slips from consciousness still “lives,” it’s just underground.

Pluto is often a “denuder,” since his X-ray eyes can also make a transparency of any secret. Pluto, in the myths of the Greeks, shared his “cap of invisibility” with Mercury, known also as “Hermes, Keeper of Secrets.” Hermes could come and go from the Land of the Eternal; he had a “passe partout,” (Divine Passport). Similarly, the story of the Psyche is that of the butterfly, the fleeting, constantly in motion, energy of Consciousness. What does Psyche want? Eros. That fleeting pleasure, the smile, the “pursuit of happiness,” as Thomas Jefferson wrote, is the freedom to love our chosen partner, or sooth our pains as our doctors would agree is effective. It will be on the courts that humanity must rely. They are represented by Jupiter, and comprise a story of surprises, coming soon to a theater (or a courthouse) near you.

Pluto, archetype of all things hidden and secret also represents an area of paranoia and neurosis; it is the spin on the over-reaction, which of course seemed a bit neurotic -–at the time. Events since the millennium sent rational people to rationing, and into underground bunkers for an accounting problem known then as “Y2K”. Yet, the “end times” drama, another constant Evangelical flop, now switches to something more serious. The poles are defrosting, the Atomic clock has lost a tick. Such ironies are no longer mere script material for a resurrection of Rod Serling’s “The Twilight Zone.”

The planets are called "wanderers" but one of them stopped dead in his tracks today. (November 11, 2004 as I write this) Saturn "made his station," by remaining at the same degree for some days, then stepping backward, retrograde.

Saturn, wandering through the chart of the USA, ”beholds" the US Pluto in Capricorn (29) from these 180 degrees, expressing as the shadowy darkness which accumulated in certain regions of the national psyche. Certainly it surrounded the recent election, where irregularities of electronic ballot-stuffing made murk of any distinction between the candidates. Numerous astrologers, including myself, were convinced of a Kerry win. Did the People speak?

So, it’s hell to pay for debts to the devil, and the bedeviling problem of Pluto, that archetype of the ghostly world, that of the "Afterlife."

Uncle Sam, let’s play fair and look at what your fantasies suggest. We have the American version of Pluto’s realms led, no doubt, by a white Jesus. He is painted to look like a long-haired Nordic, with hollow jaws and a limber height.

Such a teacher of Mercy is most needed about now as Saturn makes a U-turn 180 degrees from the USA’s Pluto. But God forbid the swarthy version of the Jewish teacher from Nazareth. His American portrait could never compare to the boys who throw rocks at Israeli tanks. Yet, the Palestinian boys who may more resemble the historic Jesus than the pale and wan figure of the pale, blond American Jesus is a parallel story, a metaphor of the perception/reality equation, where in the hidden caverns the Plutocrats freely re-arrange the financial market furniture, unbeknownst to us. The clashing of these two great Titans is a primary setting in which the latest national elections were experienced, the most important of which occurred “where the sun don’t shine.” The bonds markets are already shrinking, an investment usually made by pension funds, city police and fire, and seniors enjoying retirement. This will be the first line of sensitivity to feel the ripples of the dollar’s devaluation–- first responders and all.

Such paradoxes are the essence of the American Psyche. On one side, a frank (blonde) disfigurement of history suits the somewhat narrow projections of its ancestral paranoia and grandiosity. Our Jesus looks like someone we would admire, not the historically-correct portrait. The is a recurring grandiosity, familiar as the 1942 incarceration of the Japanese, or the 1956 harshness of the McCarthy era, or the last days of the 1975 Nixon presidency: Americans are again being scrutinized for their loyalties.

The Plutocratic Oath

The US is probably home to the greatest number of the very wealthy. Some of these super-rich are in power. These Plutocrats wield power with cunning and secrecy, pilfering from their constituents while requiring their praises, not to mention signed "oaths of loyalty." ("When he came to Rio Rancho in July, Cheney's campaign staff required attendees at his rally to sign oaths of loyalty to President Bush and Cheney, something they did to deter protesters." September 17, 2004 http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/news04/091704_news_kerry1.shtml, Albuquerque Tribune, New Mexico)

What do the very wealthy have in common with Pluto? Immortality, says Freud.

Massive accumulations of vast estates and holdings “live on," surviving death. Rich holdings in the form of trusts are held into perpetuity. The Franklin Fund? Benjamin Franklin created a fund and the mint, from the "penny earned" of his famous wisdom. The unconscious desire nursed by every scion of industry is to have his money increase in value overnight, and his name repeated long into the future. As with the rich pharaohs of Egypt, temples built in one’s name tend to hang on for the ages. To billionaire mortals, it means he’s still alive: Like Jesus, he too has survived even death. Pluto’s immortality may also be expressed through cryonics, and the old favorite, resurrection: Each circumstance is equally rooted in the unconscious collective pattern. The myth of Pluto suggests the "money = life" formula is aligned with this god’s promise of the archetypal afterlife, endowing forever the name of the holy dead. Even the Sun-worshiping Egyptians had a florid cult of the dead, mummified royal courts and pets, all on their journey to the Eternal.

The fascination for death, the eternal, and immortality are all different parts of the same archetype, Pluto. Fascination for death simultaneously appears with intense emotional and even psychotic anxiety. Usually a death in the family brings out Pluto’s depths in grief. But lesser griefs, "I’m afraid of the terrorists!" are a common fantasy from this realm of Shades.

Sure, based on some fact, somewhere, Americans may live to fear some fateful date. But will this be in front of the municipal bus or Terrorist Ali? If you are in the remotest “country” places and are still worried, it has become a Saturnian psychosis, and this on a massive, collective scale. The panic, the helplessness, is no longer personal and confidential. It is a fantasy which knits a vision to be feared. The “Old Man” blurs with the “Father Knows Best” which determines by law what couples in private may do and say– - this for their own good! The unconscious urge toward Saturnian authoritarian hierarchy is blending and blurring, and "breakouts" of hysteria are potent. Saturn-style tyrants are suddenly everywhere.

A small incident may serve to illustrate. A delivery man working for one of the big packaging shippers arrives at a bank in downtown Seattle, making a routine drop. The lady receiving the boxes is perhaps already familiar with the driver.

"You gay people should be ashamed of yourselves," she sneered on the day after the election. "We are the Moral Majority now!"

"George Bush’s war in Iraq is immoral," he responded. The national picture of the conflict now appears at the personal level. This is proof of the existence of archetypes as each actor perfectly and unconsciously mirrors the metaphor of the larger planetary picture. It is a demonstration of an "infection" of consciousness: These archetypes reflect themselves “illegally” in the interactions of humans. Like "walk-ins" these gods disguise themselves and steal their individuality. Once trained by Mom to be polite, now they don’t have to "behave!" They are gods! Their human-trained courtesy is stifled. We have an appearance of archetypal "breakouts"– free-floating anxiety reaches panic proportions. Later the question haunts: "What came over me?" Answer: The Gods are visiting. Take heed! By aligning yourself to their mania you also sacrifice something of humanity.

The lady called the shipping company and the gay delivery man was summarily fired. End of story. She spoke Saturn’s judgement and he spoke to her rising anxiety, expressing himself to her as if he were Pluto’s three-headed dog who may shout expletives from hell. Little did he know by speaking Pluto’s line he was about to enter Hell himself. Saturn’s harshness is fulfilled as Pluto returns to hide in the unemployment line, or some version of an Underworld. While there, whatever has been suppressed has as much time as needed to wait in hiding, growing ever more fierce in the Unconscious. However, the concern of Saturn is Time itself. And it is a-wasting. Saturn, even though he imposes his schedule on all us mortals, cannot himself be made to wait. We have a literal deadline. Terrorists could choose this moment (through next summer as Saturn finishes the tour of these ending degrees in Cancer) to make another attack on US soil. Yet, they need not work so hard! Judging by the intensity of this agitation so prevalent everywhere, we don’t need enemies! We have our own crop of local terrorists. In 1995, Tim McVeigh’s anxiety brought down Oklahoma City’s federal building. The potency and rigidity of Saturn’s harshness, particularly when facing the abyss of eternity with Pluto fights dirty, to the death.

Astrologers ascribe "The Mob" to Pluto because of his Underworld nature. Similarly, an organized crime is the theme of the election results, particularly in Ohio where in a single precinct of only 847 voters counted over 3,000 votes. So many more such irregularities are documented in the "battleground" states, with so outlandish a difference in the results, that the statistics for both 2000 and 2004 warrants an investigation. The lamp of Justice must go crawling into the deep secrecy of Pluto’s mobster domains, seeking the linkages to the larger pattern. "Follow the money," Pluto winks.

I wrote on October 17th that Senator John Kerry would win because of the hopeful new sign that the Sun would enter, this on no less than Hallowe’en. The movement by progression, a fractal measurement in the way of quantum physics describes the "progress" of the planets, specifically of the Sun into Pisces. Furthermore, the transit of The Other Sky God, Uranus (Jupiter being the Supreme) is also briefly at the same proverbial "stop sign" in the Zodiac: the early degrees of Pisces. Uranus also makes a station and then moves forward near that new degree of the Sun’s progress. The Sun and Uranus would kick up some change, I said. We would be blown away. We were. I however didn’t expect mine would be the losing side. After all, Uranus is the Reformer and I’m all for that. However, both of these indicators are at the earliest degrees of a New Sign, the Fishes, and that usually means a beginning; a start.

Scripting with the Gods: The Instructions from Myths

Moments like this invite the hubris of mortals, who by taking on the role of the Planet, steal inhuman power and identity from the archetypal world. This was the problem of Prometheus: Having stolen fire from Jupiter, taking what had belonged solely to the gods and giving it to Mankind, he was punished by his mortality: The Eagle, Jupiter’s Federal Motif of Government, taxes his liver (seat of Jupiter’s powers) and drains off his energy for life, assuring that the mortal will indeed die a slow death, the lifetime span of human suffering. This is how, so the legends suggest, By aging, Man learns to humble himself to the collective, and his ego returns to his human form.

In the story of Psyche and Eros, we find a way for humans to protect their humanity and identity from a similar thievery by the archetypes. Stealing and criminal motivations are a "crying out," we now say in our pop-psychology smarts, and we wonder what the size of the iceberg (all hidden beneath the level of consciousness) that may be causing us all to sink together in the unhappiness of "hardline" rigidity poised against the melting action of Pluto’s dark, sly, feminine, archetypal ways.

There may yet be some small comfort in all this. Mythology and depth (Pluto’s favorite) psychology provides resources and imagination to support a critical step: Distinguishing the difference in the limitations of being human as opposed to choosing to puff up and impersonate a god. The warm and healthy human (breathing and mortal) is up against the tyrants and Plutocrats. The impersonators of these gods perform with all the wiles of the archetypes. Because their tone and demeanor are consistent, their words seem scripted! The distinction of archetypal "stuff" is consistency: The gods always use a Teleprompter. What difference is there in the questions from the paranoid Saturnian of the McCarthy Era’s "Have you ever or are you now a member of the Communist Party?" and the current era’s paranoid Saturn, "If you’re not with us, then you’re against us." The ease with which Saturn does his polarizing, the facility to reduce to black and white an otherwise many-layered complexity, is specialty of Saturn’s own blackness.

When a human allows the voice of the gods to speak through him, it has something like a "ringer" about it. It feels like an impersonation, phony. Some kids are able to detect it better than most adults. When the gods are trying to inhabit a human, the once-warm and fuzzy person becomes something else––not himself.

The idea of a pre-scripted encounter with the gods could be a powerfully liberating notion, lending a new dimension to plausibly succeeding in transforming the troubles of life--rather than being in the way and thus crushed by swirling events-- if only we could master their lines, memorize their dialogue. The advantage is having resources by which to develop an instinctual response to the events of history as they form around us. If we can know these archetypes as astrology describes, we can be more honest with ourselves. We can be aware of the operation of these archetypes and be warned to stay out of their argument. Our job, as is often repeated throughout the myths of every culture, our sworn duty, is to remain human and write plays.

Oddly, by an act of conscious participation with the archetypes we may counter their "hold" on us. By taking clues from mythology for discovering how to survive, we return to other possibilities in the world. We may again envision the Ancient Greek vision of democracy, "One man, one pebble," as voting in a direct democracy provided. The freedom of self-rule includes the powerful dynamics of Man versus the Archetypes. Thomas Jefferson (a great humanitarian) and his colleagues foresaw the hunger for power having lived under King George III. Whilst the opposition of Pluto and Saturn are stretched tight as a drum, the Archetypal conflict will present itself spontaneously, and more clouds and mystery will spew from this conflict. On earth, humans must scramble and rearrange their assumptions.

Humans make an error when facing the gods: They either deny their existence, or take on their mantles, both punishable offenses-- or "hubris" --against the gods. Such acts of Unconsciousness permits the archetypes the unchecked use of our own wagging tongues and reasoning faculties. Not a good thing. They operate like "walk-ins."

To ensure she would not involve herself with the projections, the "cat’s cradles" of other people’s problems, all the free-floating shadow material due the opposition of the Pluto/Saturn, she was advised to place two coins pursed between her lips. To enter Hell, she also carried two mead buns. I’m reminded of the figure of the three monkeys, "Speak no evil, touch no evil ..." In the dark of the inferior world neither could she perceive good from evil. She was further advised to take her crumbs from the floor of the Royal Chamber rather than sit on any dais with the gods. The mythology suggests, While Visiting in Hell, refuse all banquets. There’ll be no fine dining with the gods, nor should the former digs of Saddam Hussein be occupied by a military bent on “psy-ops,” as a strategy of occupation. These forces, though daunting, are best managed by those humans with great strength of character. It takes will to manage through the territory of hell like Psyche did.

She paid the ferryman from the coins in her mouth. This motif is a suggestion to keep us safe from becoming ensnared in the archetypal realm’s own delirium. With stealth and the instincts of Psyche, we learn how to survive the current national obsessions.

Such anxiety-prone petty tyrants are everywhere. According to the transit, they will aggrandize their position. For the next few years we must survive the attack of these puffed-up people. McVeigh’s mother left him at age ten, so he was vulnerable to the archetypes. These vulnerable people become "infected" by free-floating archetypal manias, and surrender their human individuality; they have joined in the Devil’s own work, Pluto’s realm of temptations has grabbed Moslems and even Christians in various parts of the world. Like the Cerebus, the three-headed dogs at the gates of hell, they will howl and cast insults and more.

In contrast, a button-lipped reaction will help get us humans returned safely from this hell. Take notes but don’t talk (or shoot) back. While unprepared and alone, please save your reactions and experiences for your own support group. People living in cities know this better than those living in rural locations.

The idea of linkages to money and power is a metaphor for everyone: during these times personal debt is used by the financial community: Credit card companies and banks who charge monthly interest create a constant cash flow to the Plutocratic classes.

Debt liquidation and reorganization of discretionary finances through locally-run and smaller banks are a first step. Eschewing the national banking community empowers regional economies more vigorously. If for any reason, the national banking institutions should suddenly lurch, the Federal Government might go "insurance poor," and a second great depression (created by hysteria) could deplete the cash economy–-it could "go to hell." (See Catherine Austin Fitts, www.solari.com) Strong local economies will feel impact of a national crisis, but if your community unplugs from the Plutocratic mass, the impact can be survived. Imagine bringing federal accountability to the local level. Jupiter asks you to "think big." Perhaps, like Psyche, we should carry our ballots and our votes like she did her boat fare: In our mouths.

To focus in our own behaviors first is the human way, the conscious way, to manage the collective unconscious parading as neighbors, friends, strangers and government. By watching what we say, we (like Psyche in her search for Love) we may bring both the lantern (of investigation) and a dagger (a serious commitment, to say the least) to the subject of Justice. Ideally, this can be done by the fringe communities who cannot be silenced, whose cry for recognition and rights for freedom from oppression musters in greater numbers and strength.

Psyche used a lantern to gain the identity of her lover. This is the human story of peeking into the darker recesses of the Pluto archetype: to mimic or participate in this historic plague as instructed by the myth of Eros and Psyche gives us the ancient wisdom. We are, after all, in the same theater, the same historical archetypal force as the Greek myths demonstrate.

Psyche endured four hardships imposed on her by her battle-axe Mother-in-law, Venus. Psyche endured all for the love of Eros, the son of the Goddess, who sent Psyche on these impossible missions expecting the young, pregnant woman to fail. Her last duty to Venus was to fetch a beauty remedy from Pluto’s wife, Persephone, the Venus of the Underworld.

These two Venus’, one each from the upper and lower worlds, tell a story of mirror images, symbolizing The Uncle Sam fantasy of a “turn-on.” A spring myth is seen in the daylight of ordinary consciousness, the other is a story of twilight, told by the dim light of the "inferior world." Psyche’s crossing of the Styx, river of Eternity, sacred shore of no return, whose poisoned product was welcome nowhere, allows her to find the "Other Worldly" beauty, that Venus of the Underworld, so characteristic of Hade’s realm: His Queen, Persephone.

Her name, Persephone takes special meaning in this period of our history, with a war pounding in the Middle East. The Greek nation from which Persephone’s story originates was accustomed to a long-time enemy, the Persians, whose attacks were a part of the story of the Trojan War. Thus the first syllable of the name of this Queen refers to these traditional enemies. The last part of the name refers to the word "phone" which meant "to speak or talk." We may conclude she speaks Persian. The State Department would say, She knows the language of "the enemy." A potent spy in the so-called "war on terror" might be feminine style of power from the gothic realms of Pluto, where a cold beauty is seduction itself. "Cold" can mean retreating, or the one with the 72 virgins in her employ. Envisioning the problem of terrorism in a feminine fashion allows for retreat, some cheating, definite language problems and lavish budgets for small well-trained espionage units. This style would follow what the French take for granted: In love is war. The Science of Alliances follows a knowledge of leveraging on the perceived threat, schmoozing with the enemy, and never losing (even in the dark) sight of the cell--the new "lovenest." The Goliath of the supremely heavy top/down structures imposed by Saturn will again stand to take the small pellet from a David, any stone-throwing rebel, merely because he will not view them as “humans.”

From a White Paper on US Economics, created by http://www.sedinc.com/econ_serv.htm)

"As long as we are fully committed in Iraq, the Shiite followers of the renegade cleric Moktada al-Sadr feel free to attack the same American forces that elsewhere are fighting Sunnis bent on restoring their ancestral supremacy. But if the Shiites were persuaded that America might truly abandon them to face Saddam Hussein's loyalists alone, it seems certain that they would quickly revert to the attitude of collaboration with the occupation forces that they showed in the aftermath of the invasion. "

How quickly and quietly the picture seems to change once the feminine-style slightly neurotic relationship approach based on power and manipulation is expressed: “I’m leaving you!!”

For the military, it is called a “psy-op.” The act of lying, even to the journalists on the ground, to fool the population into reacting.

The slight threat of leaving the ceremonial marriage house (the palatial digs in Baghdad) would powerfully vary the balance.

"If you want something from me, then I need something from you first." The power of the feminine is legion. The extent to which we noticed a powerful “yin” reaction was in the piles of Iraqi military uniforms which accumulated while the Armies of the Sun proceeded toward “Victory.” To withdraw into the jungles, disguised in white robes, and to allow a new set of “Red Coats” to march into their scopes, is the feminine style of war.

The world regions where the Crescent Moon signifies a common belief is where the feminine "lesser" style has far greater effectiveness at negotiation than all the shining armies of the Solar invaders, along with the king’s golden men. We must learn to see in the dark.

Is it we who come to Iraq to fetch Persephone’s beauty potion for our cruel Mother-in-law, Venus, like the mortal Psyche?

The Opposite Side of the Coin
I made a few mistakes which I regret, in my Oct 17 "forecast" of the elections. I got caught up in my excitement and did not look at the whole chart. I did not look to see that the Saturn station would oppose lugubrious Pluto.

So, I picked John Kerry and then later was brought back to remembering that Zero degrees means what it has always meant to the astrologer: Nascent–-about to be born. The number ZERO is Astrologese for: “New on the scene.” Here, we see the departure of the Sun from the cranky and paranoid place in the Zodiac, Aquarius, and his arrival in the new sign, Pisces. It’s a switch in the Ego’s position, like a need for an overhaul, a refresher. It’s a move that suggests a greater reliance on law and religion with less reference to fear and to "top-down" hierarchical principles of Law as the moral "Daddy of us all."

This progression of the Solar, heroic side of the national Psyche is teamed with Mr. Revolution himself, Uranus. Breaking chains is his mythos. An “upsetter of apple carts,” who reverses the previous trends, may in fact play fancy with the Federal governments, providing the courts with a humanity unusual for its location, in the courts.

Transit Uranus conjoined the Progressed Sun seemed so hopeful to me that I couldn’t help myself. Ebertin’s manual, The Combination of Stellar Influences describes it thus: "A revolutionary spirit, a progressive mind (as applied to reform and technology). Excitement or upset."

The US progressed chart has Leo rising, thus the Sun is the principle of the chart, and instead of representing the "face of government" I realized later that the ascendant would be the appearance or the "look" of its people. But in the chart of nations the perspective is the sight or vision of the people. And that is what is getting the rustling up, the new start, the revolutionary touch brought by Uranus.

With Uranus, we get the "agency of people," the throngs are described by the associated mythology of the Titans that Uranus ably conquered. The Hydra-headed monster was one such Titan. So, these other characters in the myths about the planets add to the ways that we can envision the workings of their archetype. We did see the throngs on Election Day, but the operation of the Saturn/Pluto was in full swing! Murky numbers followed.

The interesting note is also the fact that Jupiter rules Pisces, (if the discerning astrologers will permit me to use the Ancient Rulers). Jupiter’s is the myth of culture, of the great works of Man. He is the architect, and academician, the actor, community leader and the educator. Policy is a Jupiterian idea. The Internet is a Jupiterian "place." And that which is The Law is certainly the domain of Jupiter, the Supreme Ruler of the Heavens. These images portray the launch of the new configuration, the progressive idea of government which comes as a revolution, that because enough people are willing to fight with a dagger and a knife, to discover for themselves the value of the democracy, and to press forward with a human effort to reform the process and to bring to light the fallacies of this last election.

A revolutionary spirit comes over the spirit of the people. A thorough investigation is required. Certainly we know not to expect any help from anyone on Washington, so the People are having to work through the Courts - - Jupiter again. 11,000 lawyers are currently working on an investigation. We see these numbers represented by the Hydra-headed mythos of Uranus.

Transits
As the Electoral College meets to certify the election on December 13 it is preceded by a New Moon (which includes the postion of the Sun), conjoining Mercury and Pluto that week, thus forcing open an unwitting revelation about Ohio and its recount.

Jupiter goes retrograde in February at 18 Libra and will conjoin the President’s Moon/Jupiter conjunction. Jupiter in the sign of the balance, Libra — the Karmic leveler. Does it disrupt any of the president’s agenda? I don’t read the experiences of my clients under such a configuration in Lois Rodden’s book on transits or the COSI. "Happy times," is what they say.

But I have had clients get the "book" thrown at them (Jupiter’s book) and reporting what can only be described as an attack. They describe their shock and dismay at some turn of events. In each case also was a moral component, a choice or an acknowledgment of right or wrong, and in complex terms.

The station of Jupiter is also going to pass several tense aspects in the US chart: squaring the US Sun at 13 Cancer, and the US Saturn at 14 Libra. Squares from the Legal Planet often bring up tests in court, investigations and again, the idea of reform.

With the omen of the Face of the People moving out of sourpuss Saturn’s sign Aquarius, and into the Jupiterian "Global" mood of cultural expansion in Pisces, I still vouch for unusual and brave action on the part of revolutionaries whose motivations are the protections of democracy and freedom, not just the wholesale exportation of it.

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Jupiter and Changes in the US "Face" of Government, Part I
(A compilation of several essays for ALL_astrology@YahooGroups.com
The Astrologer's Water Cooler, from August 19 to October 24.)

A sea change is upon us.

Just as the election swings around in November, we brink upon a profound new identity for the American People. The change has been given voice by the millions who dismayed the war in Iraq. The motivations too, out of being the most powerful nation in the world, one who is "going it alone," in Iraq, are also about to change.

This election year will bring a change. A complete rebuilding of what was torn down during the last four years and a retrenching of will is needed to bring any peace, anywhere. But the sea change, that imperceptible boundary between one order of consciousness and another, passes from an old and tiresome archetype, Saturn, to a new and more welcome one: Jupiter.

The hopeful clues are in the chart of the United States of America. The July 4th 1776 chart has been progressing these 228 years since the great independence from Britain, and that has changed plenty in the slow, imperceptible ways of time. To be sure, the Solar Progression usually extends for a period of thirty years. That will never change. However, to know the ancient system of astrology, one can see its workings through the rulerships of each sign the Sun passes through during his "progression."

The Sun may go in even measures around the zodiac as usual, but last time the Sun's Ruler changed was nearly-sixty years ago, when the Sun entered the sign Capricorn in 1943, the beginning of the "Cold War." The shrewd and paranoid and Father Figure of the Unconscious, the archetype of Saturn has since been a model for the Federal Government of the US: Home of black versus white racism, and the race of Good versus Evil; Saturn eats his children (devours the issuance, the good works of the people) and later explains his severity and extremes as having Old Sources of Authority, such as the Bible or Koran. Typically polarized, the Sun's own relationship to the sign of Aquarius is "in his fall."

The darkening and brooding dirge of Saturn's voice can drown out even the brilliance of the Sun.

That's why the Sun is disadvantaged in Aquarius. If he can't be the Hero in the Light, then he says, "I'll just have to do it my own way." Aquarius is often called an innovator or inventor. But truly, his greatest inventions are "short cuts," and "cheats" around the usual process, the more "old fashioned" styles of solving the affairs of either the raising of children or of duty to State. Aquarius likes the easy way around.

The morality of the father archetype suggests that children must learn to fear doing "wrong," fear the penalty of Saturn's Code. He may reward or punish, and such a father is severe to those who fail, and is still mildly stern with the ones who succeed: Children raised this way are not allowed to return home, or to ask for succor from the superior generation. So, they do not. Else it means failure. Resistors are escapees from the oppressor father, usually via alcoholism or drugs, but also addictions to many other behaviors: The escape is the rebellion, the shadow of the shadow, truly in the dark. That's another less well-known home of Saturn: The dark.

I think of the fact that George W. Bush did not ask his father for any advice in his decision to attack Iraq. This father was the one person in the Western World, said Bob Woodward, investigative reporter - cum biographer of presidents, in his telling of the tale of how George W. made the decision to go to war, "Who had the experience, the complete knowledge of the situation." But it appears, George W. has a "higher father," and needn’t concern his own parent. He would not go there for succor or advice.

Saturn is also not a joiner. The idea of belonging to any club that would have him, once wrote the great W.C. Fields, repulsed him. The attitude, "I wouldn't want to be a member of any club that would have me," describes the curmudgeon's glee of being "hors du combat," by virtue of beating his opponent to the punch and rejecting them before being rejected. U.S. membership in the United Nations, while being the host country, has not always been up-to-date on the club dues.

When Bush took the US into war, the UN was a conduit of a discussion occurring only for the first time in the history of the world: Is war legal? A Pluto-in-Jupiter's-sign,-Sagittarius sort of question, surely.

Considering we began the new millennium with the loss of the Twin Towers and more, Americans bounced suddenly between Jupiter's embrace (in France they said, "Today we are all Americans") and back again turned into the proverbial pumpkin, reshaped as usual: Isolationist, glum, paranoid or merely separated by oceans--from which vantage Saturn doesn't mind saying NO.

This after Bush announced the military attack on Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, October 7, 2001, "Good afternoon. On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against al Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. These carefully targeted actions are designed to disrupt the use of Afghanistan as a terrorist base of operations, and to attack the military capability of the Taliban regime.

We are joined in this operation by our staunch friend, Great Britain. Other close friends, including Canada, Australia, Germany and France, have pledged forces as the operation unfolds. More than 40 countries in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and across Asia have granted air transit or landing rights. Many more have shared intelligence. We are supported by the collective will of the world."

That collective will however dried up, Saturn's sour style returned. The invasion of Iraq by the second generation of the Bush family was opposed by most of the same allies who were standing by the U.S.A. in Afghanistan. Americans had a coalition in Afghanistan, but do not have even 30% of the support from Allies that the U.S. had in the Desert Storm war, 1991.

Saturn goes when he is forced to go, but his seniority actual has him bid others do the moving. And when he does go, it is as the Patrician, the Correct Elder Statesman, the Rector, the Right Reverend, and so on. His is a family model of reward or punishment, serves to escalate and brutalize the needed connection instinct or feeling, that "From the Heart," of more considered reactions. For example, the extremes of polarization which exist in styles of engagement, whether in the field of politics or in the occasion of terrorist activity. When the revolutionaries met the British in the field 228 years ago, the line was, "Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes!" That was at least an instinct, a gauge for engagement. The invisible enemy is no longer so obvious as the "Red Coats," a target no one can see– except in the aftermath.

The conscientiousness to play a "higher game," and "take the high road," is Jupiter's. He must counter the name-calling ("Liberty Fries") and "play fair." He must apply the opposite tack to govern the unlawful in the same manner as parents with their status-conscious children, so willing to play power games, "I’ll tell on you!" (I’ll refer you to Saturn and then you will see your punishments.)

When it returns upon themselves, such a scold raises the hackles of Saturnians when they are found to have lesbians in the family. Like a repeat that old gag of Saturday's Night Live's "Church Lady," lips pursed in indignation, we see Saturn lecturing everyone on how they must conform to his will, his "morality." However, Saturn’s worst nightmare turns him into a cuckold or a clown, like the character of Malvolio in 12th night, ridiculous in his yellow stockings. His authority and "correctness" could not buy him the lady’s hand. A separation from his instinct renders Super-Saturnians like dogs without a sense of smell.

The current months of August and September constantly brewed a false conflict between the Statesman John Kerry for his three Purple Hearts-- and the "more stained by CBS news" absenteeism of George W. from the National Guard. One is correct and has "reported for duty," and one has not.

Capricorn-style follows the regulations, but Aquarius goes against them. Strict, taciturn, weight conscious (avarice is his vice-and veers in extremes) Saturn has ruled the Sun in the progressed chart of the US for the last 61 years since 1943: the US's involvement in WWII, years marked by this major time period ruled by the Great Old Man archetype. Such a telling symbol describes the face of the government and how it is viewed by others. Saturn's cold, paranoia has colored the identity of the American people.

"The Cold War was a period of East-West competition, tension, and conflict short of full-scale war, characterized by mutual perceptions of hostile intention between military-political alliances or blocs. There were real wars, sometimes called "proxy wars" because they were fought by Soviet allies rather than the USSR itself -- along with competition for influence in the Third World, and a major superpower arms race." Notably, in the 1950's the Rosenberg's trial led to the McCarthy hearings. We can still remember the phrase, "Are you, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?" from the ABC coverage of that famous Army Vs. McCarthy conundrum. Are you for us, or are you against us?

Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on December 1, 1955. Whether fighting the cause of Black/White, Good/Evil, the enemy is "out there," According to Dick Cheney, "If we make the wrong choice, then the danger is we'll get hit again." Saturn preaches fear, dominates by punishment and reward systems, and plays the aloof for his own internecine reasons.

The likes of J. Edgar Hoover who was violating the Bill of Rights against the American people, purportedly defended the country against "Communist Infiltration," in the paranoid manner of Saturn. The works of John Ashcroft make an easy parallel.

"In the 1970s, the Senate Select Committee to Study Government Operations With Respect to Intelligence Activities so exposed FBI director J. Edgar Hoover's relentless violations of the Bill of Rights, very much including the First Amendment, that Attorney General Edward Levi-the best constitutionalist in that office in our history-established new FBI guidelines to keep its agents within the bounds of the Constitution"

Senator Frank Church of Idaho, chairman of that Select Committee on Intelligence Activities, pledged in 1975, "The American people need to be reassured that never again will an agency of the government be permitted to conduct a secret war against those citizens it considers a threat to the established order." (from http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0350/hentoff.php)

As the Sun entered Aquarius in March of 1975, it followed the year of Nixon's resignation, forced by the threat of impeachment; this president (elected in 1972) stepped down in July 1974. So, while Saturn remained entrenched, a new "detente," was on its way, less rigorously Saturn-- More like Aquarius-styled Saturn. All this self-proclaimed seriousness and dread has met its final passing: Thankfully, the Progressed Sun moves out of Aquarius, and out of the rulership by Saturn.

The new sign change (or sea change) occurs on October 31, 2004: Sun, by progression, moves into Pisces, traditionally ruled by Jupiter.

Taking a page from most any astrological lore, the differences between Saturn and Jupiter are as night is to day: A clearly opposite mood is enjoining our participation.

Jupiter is grand horizons, while Saturn is boxes and confinement. Jupiter is a ruler of warmth and cohesion, the follower of the Law, the spirit of the Law whereas Saturn is the Letter of the Law, and typified by strictness and polarity.

Jupiter rules the sky, Saturn rules Real Estate. Jupiter's new reign, and therefore new identity for the Sun, will demonstrate more development in celestial matters. This may include the Heavens of our Fathers, and the spirit of aviation, and even extra-terrestial travel: Wide horizons getting wider. The World Wide Web is a Jupiterian concept, an entity so vast that it can hardly be described in 25 words or less. And that realm has its own form of thunderbolts, its own form of justice in the form of "service attacks," where a website can be overwhelmed by hits, all quite a metaphor for the impact and majesty of a Jupiterian archetypal experience. The idea of community, of arts and architecture, culture and science all working in an integrated manner may make this the new age of "When We Joined the Club."

The US may join the world court, may join the United Nations. Our citizens, when caught in a crime, may be tried in those courts, unlike our current status. Jupiter rules the entire heavens, whereas Saturn rules his domain only.

Jupiter as the King of the Heavens, the grand thrower of bolts, is given to rule the great gifts of Classical Athens to the world: The spirit of the Olympic Games, the necessity for powerful alliances to bridge lawful passage of borders (Foreign Policy) the creation of community via the nurturance of discussion (Democracy). Jupiter is The Law (Legislature), and could, as a holder of thunderbolts, shock and awe the best of them. His is the realm of the Sky, and all Lands bow to his might. His Legislative and diplomatic powers are legend. (He also loves banquets, so catering companies should make more money.)

A lot of discussion usually precedes Jupiter's decisive hard balls. Saturn might try to confine such discussion to the midnight shift at Abu Ghraib prison. However, it was Jupiter's stationary direct motion in May which touched off George W’s chart, the ruler of his tenth, Mars, and liberated the waking, breathing need for self-reliant morality, a sense of Justice, and a willingness to protect the Peace and Good Will Toward Men.

A change of heart is upon us.

It seems the army hidden within the will of The People, the masses who volunteer will expand, as seen in the Hexagram 7 of the I Ching.

The degree of the US chart's progressed Sun will be Zero Pisces on 10/31/04. In the very next degrees (02) we find a Uranus stationary direct motion on November 11, the greatest turner-over and upsetter of apple carts: Whatever was in its path, is made to reverse. Uranus is a bearer of truths, a hundred-handed sort of mythology gives him a hydra-headed appearance, as if everywhere at once. The "flash mobs" are very much a Uranian event: first the City Hall's entry was empty, then suddenly 300 people appeared.

This may indicate historic turnout at the polls. While the Progressed Sun is so near and in the same sign with Uranus, this "Other Sky God," will rotate the issues, sending a reversal to topsy turvy into the next year. These may be in the form of smoking guns, a lightning bolt specialist's favorite. What happened to the 380 tons of deadly explosives which were lost in Iraq? The world understands finally, that in fact, the world is not more "safe" with George W. paying attention to anything but the safety of the masses.

Next year, Pluto will square Mr. Cheney's Moon at 22 Pisces. Because Jupiter rules both signs, Pluto's Sagittarius and the Pisces Moon, we might expect he will have need of a lawyer:

"Vice President Dick Cheney was a guest on NBC's Meet the Press last September when host Tim Russert brought up Halliburton. Citing the company's role in rebuilding Iraq as well as Cheney's prior service as Halliburton's CEO, Russert asked, " Were you involved in any way in the awarding of those contracts?" Cheney's reply: " Of course not, Tim ... And as Vice President, I have absolutely no influence of, involvement of, knowledge of in any way, shape or form of contracts led by the [Army] Corps of Engineers or anybody else in the Federal Government." (From Time Magazine, June 2004)

Jupiter's qualities give greater emphasis to what draws culture together, what binds a people to each other, and in His Excellency's Jupiterian view, it is Law and Justice. The Common Good is his concern, Case in point, his exaltation in Cancer, suggesting powers "of the people," since the Moon is the planet of the Common Man. The exaltation suggests Jupiter has an "in" with the people. Jupiter's warmth extends in hope, faith, trust and the expectation that when we disagree, a good discussion can benefit us all--particularly when we're sharing a brew or dining together. That does not take the sting out of those "bolts from the blue," nonetheless, a mature understanding and a new vision of "victimless crimes" is about to be reviewed. Not the "father," Jupiter prefers intelligent people decide for themselves what "deviant" behavior they want to enjoy in privacy.

With the Jupiter ruling the People's Identity (ruling the Sun, which is the ruler of progressed ascendant of the U.S. chart) we can expect that foreign policy will successfully team a coalition of international support for Iraq and its rebuilding. Let us see if the U.S. withdraws from Baghdad's most palatial digs and returns them to the People of Iraq, a gesture of the departure of "the occupation." Let us see if the U.S. decides to become a member of the rest of the world and declare a cooperative and active role for settling legal disputes and entering treaties, and engendering Good Will as a side benefit--and find the real terrorists in the same stroke without giving a break to the criminals of the Afghani conflict.

The sea change will shock at first, since it is Uranus at the helm, and sparks really do fly; such reversals as would make your head spin.

November 2, 2004 cannot fail to be a reversal, a change in government so thorough as to take one's breath away. Set your sail on election day.

...As the sky is to the light of the sun, so is the mind to the light of truth and wisdom. Neither the sky nor the intellect ever receive rays of light when they are clouded, but once they are pure and clear they both receive them immediately. ... The divine cannot be spoken or learned as other things are. However, from continued application and a matching of one's life to the divine, suddenly, as if from a leaping spark, a light is kindled in the mind and thereafter nourishes itself. -- Marsilio Ficino, Letters (1433-1499)

USA - Natal Chart Selection: Solar ingresses and conj. USA chart Jul 4 1776, 5:15 PM, EST +5:00 Philadelphia PA USA 39N57 075W10 Geocentric Tropical Zodiac Placidus Houses, True Node

The USA chart
Progressed Sun, entering the signs of the zodiac:
The following list is a compilation of the US Sun's entrance into each sign
since 1776, followed by dates. Also, some important conjunctions of the Sun to natal planets. --cf

Sun * Leo Dec 23 1793 Sun * Virgo Mar 29 1825 Sun * Neptune May 3 1848 Sun * Libra Jan 31 1856 Sun * Scorpio May 28 1886 Sun * Sagittarius Mar 31 1916

Sun * Ascendant Apr 28 1929 Sun * Capricorn Oct 8 1945 Sun * Pluto Oct 24 1972 Sun * Aquarius Mar 19 1975 Sun * Moon Jan 27 2002 Sun * Pisces Oct 31 2004 Sun * Aries Mar 6 2034