New Moon in Gemini

Saturday, June 12th, 2010, 7:14:30 AM EDT

“Louisiana isn’t the only place that has shrimp.” -BP Rep., Randy Prescott

Gemini is the sign of communications, travel, the media, transportation, news, speeches.  It also has to do with ingenuity, expertise and resourcefulness.  With the New Moon you get a surge of new energy, a flurry of excitement.  Interestingly, when the New Moon chart is placed in Grand Isle, Louisiana, one of the first places to be devastated by the oil spill, the New Moon is within only a few degrees of the Ascendant.  This may be that this area of the country is going to continue to be spotlighted in the media over the month ahead... but it also implies a new beginning.  A new beginning that is being thwarted by some, but supported by others. 

When placed in Washington, DC, the New Moon falls in the 12th House, the house of self-undoing, weakness and hidden enemies.  Now, I know everyone loves to blame the media, but in this case it seems to be playing a huge part in this perception of ineffectuality and weakness on the part of the country.  Much of the self-undoing is related to a very vigorous campaign from those within the country itself, and supporting the opposition political party.  It is also undermined by the depressed state of the populace. No New Deal to help out the unemployed, a sham of a health care bill without a public option for the uninsured.  A lot of paperwork, with little to show for it on the ground, leaves little support for a beleaguered administration. 

The 12th House also rules the past.  And this is when that past comes to bite the US in the ass, and where they really have to begin that mass clean up both within and without.  We may all have our own versions of an oil spill in our lives these days... with a lot of catch up to make up for the conditions that have led up to this situation.    But with the US, there’s a lot of history related to ties in the past, with the US government and big oil corporations.  The former Vice President, Dick Cheney, as well as former President George W. Bush had strong ties with big oil.  The Bush administration had an ideological mission to relax governmental regulations on corporations in general.  There was the belief that self-interest would self-regulate.  But, as we have seen, corporations are more than willing to cut corners, often catastrophically, when it comes to the bottom line.  Their self-interest lies in making money, not protecting people’s lives, or the environment.

The effectiveness of the country and the administration, our attempts at stabilizing the economy, for getting its citizens back to work are being undermined, both from within, and without.  Within, through political opposition, that has the country stale mated and backed into a corner.  Without, through its own alliances which are proving to be both deadly and catastrophic.  The general popular outlook is dismal and pessimistic.  This in turn does not help the economy.  And those who are really responsible, say, for the oil spill in the gulf, are trying to escape their responsibilities.  BP, the biggest corporation in the world, does not want, and does not feel, that they have to pay for all the damages they have caused to oceans, the wildlife, and to life in general.

British Petroleum, in an attempt to whitewash their own image has contracted $50M worth of TV advertising.  In addition, BP will be paying $10.5B in dividends this quarter to their shareholders.  This led President Obama to respond:

And what I don’t want to hear is, when they’re spending that kind of money on their shareholders and spending that kind of money on TV advertising, that they’re nickel-and-diming fishermen or small businesses here in the Gulf who are having a hard time.

In addition, Bernie Sanders is pushing a bill to end tax breaks for oil and gas companies. He proposes using the $35B in tax breaks they are given to help pay off the deficit, and help fund energy efficiency and conservation.  He states:

"If there is anything we should be learning from the Gulf disaster, it is that it is time to move aggressively away from polluting and unsafe fossil fuels, which are getting more and more difficult to produce as we move further and further offshore to drill for them,“ he said in a statement. “And, with a $13 trillion national debt, the last thing we need to be doing is giving tax breaks to big oil and gas companies that have been making record-breaking profits year after year after year."

In the New Moon chart, Neptune is involved in a Yod configuration, which is sometimes referred to as the finger of God.  Neptune is at the finger of another Yod in the Lunar Eclipse on June 26th.  The New Moon is also applying to a trine to Neptune in the New Moon chart.  Yod's are referred to as the finger of God, because there are often miraculous if not intensely karmic events associated with the planet at the point of the configuration.  Neptune rules oil, it rules oceans, sailors, people who work on the sea, who make their living there.  Neptune also rules deception, escapism and smoke and mirrors.  Neptune can rule loss, helplessness and hopelessness.  It can also rule divine intervention, being saved, and a willingness to sacrifice for a higher cause.  In mundane astrology, Neptune rules democracy, because it levels the playing field: all lives are sacred, all swim in the same ocean of spirit. 

Neptune is in the sign of Aquarius, and Uranus, one of the rulers of Aquarius, recently entered Aries and is now conjunct Jupiter, the planet of freedom and justice.  With Uranus now in Aries, we will be talking a lot more about breaking away from our dependence on oil (Neptune), being more self-reliant (Aries), and willing to break out in a whole new direction (Jupiter conjunct Uranus in Aries).  We need to seriously explore renewable energies: wind power, solar power, tidal power, wave power, biofuels, algraculture.  As a tree hugging mother of an Air Force Tech Sgt., I am exceedingly proud to say that in March there was the news that the American Air Force had successfully flown planes using clean burning biofuels.  Some of our most innovative inventions have come directly or indirectly through the military.

It is time to step out into new territory, and if this means breaking down old corporate alliances, if this presents the first steps towards the separation of corporation and state... then we will truly see the end of an era and the breaking of a new dawn.  But in order to do this, we are all going to have to be willing to make some sacrifices, to redirect our focus, and consider the sacred value of all of life.  We are all on this planet together, and everything that happens to devastate one area of our planet, inevitably affects us all.

A human being is part of a whole, the “universe.” Our task must be to free ourselves from the delusion of separateness, to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature. - Albert Einstein