Loss, Surrender and Sacrifice

Neptune stations and turns Retrograde today in the sign of Aquarius, and as she makes her turn, she comes face to face with the planet Mars in the opposite sign of Leo.  When Neptune stations Retrograde, it is time to ask ourselves, where we have put ego, will, pride and selfishness forward at the expense of compassion, altruism, and the recognition of our connection with all of life?  Neptune is about surrender of the will for something higher, surrender of the ego for the benefit of the all, surrender to the Divine. We need to ask ourselves how we are serving our own interests perhaps at the expense of others.  Never is this more so than now, as Neptune in the humanitarian sign of Aquarius, comes head on against Mars, the warrior, in arrogant Leo. 

When first starting to write this article, I thought it would be all about the oil spill.  Neptune rules oil, the ocean, toxins, poisons, gases and epidemics.  When opposing Mars, it’s often the things that we cannot see, or are not being told, that are the real problem.  Yesterday, there was speculation that BP was not telling us the whole truth about the oil spill, and that there might be more than one leak.  We’ve also been given weak platitudes about how the ocean will correct itself, clean itself up... and all will return as it once was in its pristine clarity.  Philippe Cousteau (grandson of Jacques) has been trying to redress this misinformation this past week.

Then today, we are confronted with another incident.  A Freedom Flotilla of international activists were on their way to deliver humanitarian (Neptune in Aquarius) aid to the Gaza strip, loaded with wheelchairs and a dental clinic.  They were defying Israel’s draconian embargo on certain types of aid.  While still in international waters, Israeli war (Mars in Leo) ships surrounded the smaller boats, and commandos boarded the Mervi Manara, opening fire with machine guns as soon as they landed on the deck, killing numerous activists on board.  Israel is trying to claim that the activists were armed and instigated the violence.  But the Mervi Manara was carefully screened for guns before leaving port.

Neptune stations exactly opposite the Israeli Mars (aggression, war, violence) today, in the proud sign of Leo, even as Mars by transit will return to this place this coming week.  Neptune is also the planet of deception, smoke and mirrors, and even as the smoke is just starting to settle, Israeli officials are redefining, rewriting, and recreating the surrounding circumstances: the activists instigated the violence, they were armed... etc., none of which is true. 

Aquarius is ruled by Uranus, and Uranus just entered impulsive and aggressive Aries on the 27th of May.  This brings a whole new element to the Neptune in Aquarius aura, in which activists and humanitarians will be more willing to take a more aggressive posture.  But it certainly also contributed to Israel’s impulsive actions, the results of which could be pretty far reaching internationally.

Neptune is about loss and defeat and a willingness to let go.  Surrender to a higher cause.  Neptune is also about sacrifice, or committing actions that benefit the whole, rather than the self.  Sacrifice literally means to make sacred.  Whether you surrender to music, or art, or give of your personal time to help others in need, or surrender your personal will and desires to those of the Almighty, it’s the sacrifice of the lower, and the personal, to the divine.  In order to do this we are being compelled to accept the things we cannot change, have the courage of our convictions to change the things we can, and to have the wisdom to know the difference. 

More on Pluto in Capricorn

Last time Pluto was in Capricorn the Colonies were struggling under the oppression of the British Empire and King George III.  Pluto was in Capricorn from 1762 through 1778.  Back then the big profits made by the British were in the import and export of opium and slaves.  However, coming at the end of the 7 Years War (which actually lasted about 9 years), Great Britain was bankrupting itself, the opium trade wasn’t going as well as hoped, and so she sought to recoup her losses.  Hence the Stamp Act of 1765.  This was a tax imposed on the colonies to help pay for the troops stationed in North America.  After all, the troops were supposedly there for the benefit of the colonists.  The colonists resisted, vehemently, to taxation without consent, and soon after the Act was repealed.  However, this was the first of several  steps that instigated the growing movement that eventually led to the American Revolution.  This is when the people looked around them, and started to ask, “Hey, wait a minute, do you want to run that by me again?” 

This time around, big power is in the hands of the corporations and money brokers.  Whether it’s Drug Lords in Mexico or Jamaica, or the other Drug Lords, Big Pharma,  Anthem or United Health Care here in the US, or Big Oil, Big Banks and Wall Street in the West, it’s all about the bottom line.  To think that the Drug Lords in Mexico and Jamaica don’t have some sort of financial deal with the powers that be, or that Oil Companies don’t have the US Government in their pockets, would be ludicrous indeed.  This is politics as usual.  The dark side of Pluto in Capricorn. 

Wall Street executives and traders are clearly to blame for many people losing their homes, their savings, their jobs... even as these same Banks and Wall St. traders are continuing to collect huge bonuses and salaries. 

Massey Energy did not use the necessary safety equipment, nor follow procedures that would have saved the lives of miners killed in the recent mine disaster in West Virginia.  And it’s becoming apparent that BP was not beholden to regulations either when it rushed to meet the bottom line with the devastating explosion of the Deep Water Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico.  Corporations have one goal, and that is to make as much money as possible.  They certainly do not care about human lives, the environment, or have any other priority, but making money.

The government becomes part and parcel with the problem when it is allied with these corporations.  However, they can become the solution if they take control of the corporations.  Since the Reagan administration, right wing Republicans, as well as these Tea Party people with their silly hats, have attacked any form of governmental regulation.  And now we are reaping the results of having given so much unregulated power to the corporations.  Pluto in Capricorn is showing us where the power has become overwhelmingly leveraged towards the few, at the expense of the rest.  Pluto is also revolution, and the fall from power of those in high places.  It’s the redistribution of power. 

It’s time for the separation of Corporation and State.

Pluto’s job is to reveal the dark underbelly.  Only weeks after approving off shore drilling on the east coast of the United States, we see the destruction of the oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico and its resulting disaster, the environmental effects of which will only boggle the mind.  Pluto shows where power is being used in a selfish and destructive manner.  And often Pluto will use very dramatic means to bring his point across.  What is astounding is how many people still support off shore drilling even as they’re bathing in the slime of the 10 mile oil slick and the fish that they eat will be contaminated with toxic dispersants and petroleum. 

This is where Uranus now in Aries comes in.  And Jupiter, the planet of truth and justice, entering Aries next week, is going to put in his 2 cents worth as well.  This is the beginning of the Cardinal Cross, which marks the inevitability for change and reformation,  challenging and revealing the issues of Pluto in Capricorn. 

It is time to take off the rose colored glasses, and open our eyes.  Time for the corrupt and the greedy to fall.  And for a new era to be reborn out of the ashes of the old.  If, after the housing crisis, the hemorrhaging of jobs, the loss of lives in the Middle East (as if you haven’t figured out by now that Iraq was all about oil), the poisoning of the Gulf of Mexico, people are still not getting it, then Pluto will continue to uncover, reveal and disclose the dark underbelly, even if he has to repeatedly bang us over the head to get through to us.  Until, finally, we are forced to ask, “Hey, wait a minute, do you want to run that by me again?”

Uranus in Aries

With Uranus entering Aries on May 27th, we’re entering a phase of illumination and dynamic change.  As with any ingress of a major planet into a new sign, we can anticipate a broad spectrum of effects.  These are often even more dramatic when they enter Cardinal signs, because these signs are more conducive to change.  At the higher end of the spectrum, Uranus in Aries brings a lot of good stuff: births, new beginnings, new enterprises, especially those that require the courage to think outside the box, and provided you are willing to strike out in a new and different direction.  Preferably your own true direction.  It’s about independent initiative.  Doing your own thing.  Taking that chance that you’ve secretly been wanting to take.... but were a little too nervous to act on... Uranus is compelling us to break down boundaries, and Aries is giving us the courage to do so.  Uranus in Aries is about creating change based on truth, honesty and transparency. 

And then there’s the Tea Party.  And Rand Paul.  The fact that Rand Paul won the Republican Senate primary in Kentucky wasn’t such a surprise considering his huge lead in the polls.  What was surprising has been his outspoken association with the Tea Party, and his controversial comments about the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  You see, Rand Paul is against big government.  Paul—who has called for the abolition of the Federal Reserve and the Department of Education, spoke ambivalently, and yet clearly, against the Civil Rights Act:

Mr. Paul said in an interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC last Wednesday night that he supported the sections of the Civil Rights Act that applied to public accommodations but had concerns when it came to its applicability to private business.

Asked by Ms. Maddow if a private business had the right to refuse to serve black people, Mr. Paul replied, “Yes.”

“I think it’s a bad business decision to exclude anybody from your restaurant,” he said, “but, at the same time, I do believe in private ownership.”  ...“This is the hard part about believing in freedom.” says Paul. 

In other words, if black people, brown people, gay people, or some other group wanted to eat at a private lunch counter, and the owners wanted to prevent them from doing so, they should have the freedom to make that decision.  At least according to Paul.  Uranus in Aries can be equated with freedom at all costs... but in this case, it’s being expressed as tolerance of discrimination.  As Abraham Lincoln said, "Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves."

And then at the very lower end of the spectrum of Uranus in Aries is the party of “I”.  Instead of just having the courage of one’s convictions which is a positive effect of Uranus in Aries, we see passionate rebellion against the establishment, in the form of militias and egocentrists.  Self-reliance is taken to a new extreme of centrism, and xenophobia.  Fighting for freedom, truth and justice is perverted into selfish rationalism and violent extremism.  These are the impulsive crackpots who step in where fools rarely go.  With ammunition.

We’ll just be seeing the first baby steps of the Uranus in Aries effect this year.  Uranus is just putting its toe into the water, and then drawing it back.  It will enter Aries for good in the Spring of 2011. But until then, as Uranus enters Aries this year, it is making noises like, and acting like it is challenging Pluto in Capricorn, which represents the bureaucracy, corporations and big business, as well as the government, and then take it all back.  This flirtation with premature acts of rebellion that we see brewing, are the seeds of a much larger movement that will be emerging in 2012-15.  The truth is, Pluto in Capricorn really is about breaking down structures, customs and ideologies, that are no longer relevant, and may in fact be holding us back, and preventing us from growing.  And there are certain things that really do need to change.  To the Tea Partiers big government is the big bad dragon standing in the way of freedom and progress.  But what about institutions that have been a part of the culture for way too long, such as racism, homophobia, and sexism.  What about unregulated corporations putting profits before people and the environment.  Some things really do need to change.

Clinging desperately to what is familiar, or trying to revert to the past, brings some element of comfort to those who try to hold on to crumbling,  or out dated ideologies.  There are people still trying to hold on to, or recreate things, the way they used to be. This week, conservatives in the Texas Board of Education approved a new social studies curriculum that will alter the content in textbooks, stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning secular government and trying to put conservative Republican philosophies in a more positive light.  Pluto in Capricorn demands that we let those things go that need to be let go.  Progress depends on looking forward, not trying to rewrite the past. 

This Summer, Saturn enters Libra, and will perfect its opposition to Uranus in Aries.  For the first time in this series of oppositions, it is in cardinal signs.  New partnerships, new, more meaningful alliances are going to be made and created as old alliances and treaties break down.  What will become apparent is that we can no longer live a lie, or associate with partners that undermine our integrity.  Opposing forces will feel like they are being forced to have to cooperate.  In the face of this, coalitions will be formed on one side or the other, as a Survivor Series mentality ensues.  We’ve been seeing a little of this, as politicians switch parties, old parties seem to be floundering as they are becoming irrelevant and infiltrated by new factions.  Strange new bed fellows are made, as they were recently in England with an alliance between the Conservative and Liberal Democratic parties.  Conservatives won the election over Labor and Liberal Democrats, but did not obtain enough votes or seats to get the majority needed to govern.  Conservative leader, David Cameron, found himself compelled to form an unholy alliance with the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg. 

New structures, new ways of doing things, new alliances are going to arise.  It’s about rebuilding structures that are out dated and no longer sustainable.  We’re entering a new era with new rules, and those who refuse to acknowledge this will be left behind, stumbling around in the darkness of a reality that no longer exists.  Jupiter, the planet of truth and justice will be joining Uranus this June.  New structures, new perspectives are needing to be based on an even broader understanding of truth, honesty and disclosure.  We’ll all be looking at things a little differently, with a new perspective, and hopefully somewhat enlightened as a result.  And once that happens, like Lot’s wife in the Book of Genesis, you can not look back, you can never go back to the way things used to be.

Plutonomy: or what was the Oil Rig Disaster

In looking at the recent Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster off the coast of Louisiana last month, I expected to see a Neptune event, and it was Neptunian.  Neptune rules oil.  Or at least a Piscean event since Pisces is ruled by Neptune, which rules oil and oceans.  Cancer and the Moon also rule seas, and the Moon was rising in Cancer at the time of the explosion on board the Deepwater Horizon.  So it was both a Pisces and Cancer event.

If you were to ask why here, why now?   Looking astrologically, the first event I thought of was the exact opposition of Saturn Retrograde in Virgo opposing Uranus in Pisces on the 26th of April.  Saturn/Uranus events can certainly be associated with disasters on a large scale, and there seems to be something inevitable about this event and its relationship to these opposing forces. Saturn/Uranus also points to the necessity for change.

First off, Saturn is Retrograde in Virgo, the sign that I associate with the environment, as well as the 'workers' and the working class.  Jobs have been drifting off into the ether and down the drain over the past few years that Saturn has been in this sign.  Saturn rules governments, leaders, CEO's, the guy in charge and with the keys.  The person or persons who are supposed to be responsible, and Saturn is Retrograde.  In Virgo.  The sign of jobs and workers.  Virgo is ruled by Mercury, which went Retrograde (human error?) 2 days before the accident and was applying to a square to Mars (accident).  Saturn is about regulations, who rules, what the rules are, and whether or not they are being followed.  BP apparently has broken laws and violated its own internal procedures in the past.  Don't let them fool you with those clean energy commercials they've been flaunting over the air waves.  And Halliburton, yes, good old Halliburton, is under scrutiny for its role in cementing the drill site.  And then there's those remote control shut off switches.

Other countries like Brazil and Norway require these remote control shut off switches which protect against underwater spills. The US considered requiring them several years ago, but the drilling companies questioned their effectiveness and most of all their cost.  It was Cheney's energy task force that decided that the switches were too much of a burden on the industry.  Add to this that after the Exxon Valdiz oil spill, a law was passed capping the liability for oil companies at $75 million.  The oil companies are under-regulated and the consequences are nothing more than a slap on the wrist.  Saturn Retrograde.  In Virgo.  The long term consequences are that numerous jobs are going to be lost and/or threatened as the fisheries and the tourism industries, not to mention the birds, all the birds that will die as a result of this disaster.  It will take years for the wildlife to be restored to this area, and for the industries to be revived.  Obama says that he holds BP responsible, but to what extent?  Not nearly enough.

Saturn opposing Uranus, sudden event warranting change, in Pisces which rules oil and oceans.  Jupiter which makes everything huge and massive and larger than expected, approaching Uranus.  Pisces is ruled by Neptune, which falls in the 8th House of death in the disaster chart, and financial losses.  Neptune squares Venus, re-emphasizing the 'loss of revenue' theme.  Lots of revenue lost.  And then you have to ask whose revenue?  BP's revenue?  But also our revenue!  That's not BP's coast guard out there trying to mop up the mess!

In the chart for the founding of BP Oil, Neptune is in the same degree as the South Node, Moon and Ascendant of the disaster chart.... oil.  South Node has to do with inevitable consequences due to past and/or accustomed ways of doing things, doing business as usual.  It's not working.  It has consequences.  Only one month after Obama announced a plan to open the Atlantic coast for oil exploration... there seems to be a little kismet working here.

Uranus has another purpose, and that is illumination.  As a consequence of this massive oil spill Obama has halted any plans for off shore drilling on the Atlantic coast, and California is following suit with its off-shore drilling plans.  When pollution levels reached catastrophic levels years ago, so that you could not see through smog, rivers were igniting, dead fish were washing up on our shores, and oil globs littered the Pacific coastline... people took great measures to start taking care of the environment.  It was visible.   Since then the problems have not been as visible.  We became apathetic.  This catastrophe, is at least drawing us to consider the state of our environment, and our responsibility for it. 

And then there's Pluto.  Good old Pluto in Capricorn, representing the plutocracy.  If you were to place the Aries Ingress chart at the site of the oil rig disaster... Pluto would sit exactly on the descendant, opposing the Cancer Ascendant.  Cancer rules the sea... but it also rules the people.  Democracy.  Yeah, what we're talking about has to do with weak regulations... but why?  Or maybe some sloppy mistakes... yet again, why?  We have been summarily giving away our power to the corporations over the past few decades, and now that Pluto is in Capricorn we are reaping the consequences of our own apathy and compliance. 

On Bill Moyers' final broadcast on PBS he discussed why Plutocracy and Democracy do not mix, and talked about 'Plutonomy', or an economy and government that is partial to and favors the extremely wealthy and corporations...  for at the basis of the vast majority of ills that plague our nation these days... this is it.  It always gets back to Pluto in Capricorn.