Outrageous!

Wodan throwing his hammer

Full Moon in Taurus ~ Sunday, November 21, 2010; 12:28 PM EST

I have a right to my anger, and I don't want anybody telling me I shouldn't be, that it's not nice to be, and that something's wrong with me because I get angry.
~Maxine Waters

 This Full Moon occurs in the last degree of the sign of Taurus, the culmination of the end of a phase.... You will notice that there was a lot covered in the news this week, falling in the realms of both Taurus (finances, security, safety) and the Sun’s sign of Scorpio (wealth, power, corporatism, insurances companies, and personal privacy).  Are we, or are we not, (here in the US) going to extend the tax breaks for the super wealthy, or are we going to extend Unemployment benefits?  Which are our priorities?

Alan Grayson gave some brilliant suggestions for what the mega wealthy can spend their tax breaks on; Nicholas Kristof wrote an editorial about the US’ new status as a “Hedgefund Republic”; we were made privy of the massive profits made by health insurance company’s this year; while new Congressman Andy Harris wanted to know why he had to wait so long for his government sponsored health care to kick in!  All the while 50 million people in the US have no insurance at all, unemployment remains at 9.6%, and the gap between the rich and poor is the greatest it has ever been in this country where the richest 1% possess more net worth than the bottom 90% (see Kristof’s article here).

And then there are the TSA scanners. 

Enough said.  We deserve a little outrage, bluster, and protest! 

With Jupiter’s recent station, and the Sun about to join Mercury and Mars in the sign of Sagittarius, everyone is going to have an opinion... everyone is brimming over, having had it up to here, with apparent injustice, unethical practices and immoral behavior.  So joining the hero, Mars in Sagittarius, Mercury, and now the Sun (entering Sagittarius on the 22nd) have come to help him to carry the banner for truth and justice, revealing hypocrisy and exposing lies everywhere. 

What we all have to watch out for is getting carried away with ourselves.  Things are nerve wracking.. the pace is quick, and words will flow out without caution or thought for the consequences over the next week.  Beware.  This is a great time to negotiate, to debate, to broadcast... yet you first have to make sure that you are all speaking the same language, and not impulsively saying whatever it is that’s in your head, without carefully thinking it through first. 

We can use the ensuing energy to be the Knight in Shining armor fighting for ideals, or Joan of Arc leading us on to glorious victory.  We can be the hero flying in to save the day, such as Alan Grayson, or even Ron Paul exasperated with the X-rated x-ray machines.  Or we can also be a source of agitation, getting everyone pissed off with our arrogance, audacity and hubris, such as Andy Harris did, when he complained about not getting his health insurance, after running on a platform to repeal Health Care Reform.... or like the Republicans did this week when they voted unanimously not to extend Unemployment Insurance for the unemployed, while pushing to extend the tax cuts for the mega-wealthy!

Is it time to be outraged?  You bet it is! 

The Karma of Pluto/North Node

Nor would the ways of Karma be inscrutable were men to work in union and harmony, instead of disunion and strife..... We stand bewildered before the mystery of our own making, and the riddles of life that we will not solve, and then accuse the great Sphinx of devouring us. But verily there is not an accident in our lives, not a misshapen day, or a misfortune, that could not be traced back to our own doings in this or in another life.  If one breaks the laws of Harmony... one must be prepared to fall into the chaos one has oneself produced. (Secret Doctrine, Vol I, p. 643-44)

The North Node in Capricorn phase, is a phase in which there is a strong emotional identification with one’s own country, and what it stands for.  Unfortunately this seems to be manifesting as a selfish construct in the design of what some people perceive to be their country.  Not anyone elses.  The weakness in this nodal period is in clinging to the past, to what was, or could have been... with an unrealistic sense of nostalgia and innocence.  The most difficult Karmic lesson for humanity, when North Node is in Capricorn, is a willingness to let go of the past, and move forward.  It is a growth period.  A time of grave responsibility.  And to continue to act like children, wanting someone else to make decisions for them, having someone else take the blame instead of shouldering the responsibility, will only create more deeply embedded problems.

Pluto represents power, which in our society usually means those who have accumulated large amounts of money and resources.  This in itself is not evil.  It depends on what those in power do with the power once they have it.  Do they redistribute the wealth in the hopes of making our world a much better place?  Or do they invest it in themselves to become even more powerful?

Selfishness is essentially conservative, and hates being disturbed. It prefers an easy-going, unexacting lie to the greatest truth, if the latter requires the sacrifice of one’s smallest comfort.
 -from The Key to Theosophy by HPBlavatsky

North Node in Capricorn, is a critical point in our development as a race of humanity.  The choices we are making now will stand up to judgment many years down the line.  Pluto now exactly conjunct the North Node just makes those decisions even more powerful.  Pluto is going to be compelling us, with very serious karmic repercussions, to step up to the plate and do the right thing.  To take responsibility in an awesomely mature and reasonable manner.  There are big changes that need to be made, and the more we resist those changes, the more devastating and difficult the karmic results will be.

We just held a mid-term election here in the US where a huge number of seats went over to the Republican side.... the consequences are well outlined in this Bloomberg article on Wednesday:

The Republican gains in Congress mean U.S. companies from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to Wellpoint Inc. may be able to weaken or block what they consider President Barack Obama’s anti-business policies on health care, the environment, taxes and financial reform. 

Republicans will use their perch as the new majority in the House of Representatives to try to eliminate funding for parts of Obama’s health care bill opposed by business as well as curb regulations and government spending, Jay Timmons, senior vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers, a Washington-based lobbying group, said in an interview before the election.

With a large majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives, there will be a strong push to:

• repeal health care regulations (and with some newer members, the desire to eliminate health care reform altogether).
• repeal regulations for pesticides, ozone standards, carbon emissions, and mining (!)
• repeal limits on outsourcing jobs
• weaken unions and organized labor.  Republicans have opposed union-backed federal stimulus spending that would have created jobs for teachers, police officers, and construction related jobs.

We need to face our wounds head on without cringing, face what is indeed broken in our society, and fix it.  Capricorn represents the infrastructure, the government, those who have the power.  Pluto indicates that those who have the money and a great deal of power already, are trying to keep that power, and use us to achieve their ends.  If we believe in the lies, the manipulation, the twisting of the truths, we become their slaves, doing their bidding.  If we the people, rise up, with clear sight, openness, honesty, and the courage to face hard truths, then we can transform society in magnificent ways.  We can be helpless slaves to the plutocrats, or we can reclaim the power that was always meant to be ours, and take the reins ourselves.  Congress has to answer to us.  We have to remember this.  It all depends on how powerful we really think we are.