Of Neptune and the Environment

Joplin, MO, after mile-wide tornado

What have we learned?  

For the past 13 years, Neptune has been in the sign of Aquarius.  It made a brief entrance into Pisces this Spring, but has returned this Summer to complete the Neptune in Aquarius cycle, before finally re-entering Pisces in February 2012.  Neptune represents the global zeitgeist, the mores, customs, the universal pathos and culture.  It represents the idealistic backdrop within the human community.  Neptune recognizes no boundaries or limits, its essential essence reflects universal expressions of compassion, inspiration, and connectedness.  While in Aquarius we were challenged to not only recognize our interconnectedness, but to make it a more ‘conscious’ reality, through inventive technology and reaching beyond our previous comfort zones.
the collective, scientific exploration and discovery, the collective consciousness, invention

Throughout the Neptune in Aquarius era we’ve been inspired to experiment and question the status quo.  Aquarius is a detached, intellectual sign.. and through its auspices, we have woven our connections through the Aquarian world of the media, the internet, networking, and the global web of ‘communications’.  Our culture has been redefined by our relationship to the internet, through technology and greater global access... we truly have become a global village.
individuality, the iconoclast, the revolutionary, freedom, the non-conformist, the acceptance of differences in culture and orientation

One of the negative sides of the ready access to information and global influence has been the Murdochian ease of manipulation of the collective by sowing misinformation and lies through this same media.  Ideally, Neptune in Aquarius has enabled a broader understanding and immediate access to injustices throughout the world, raising awareness and compassion, and a desire to help. 
But Neptune also rules masks, fakes, manipulators and liars, who have used the evolving technology and accessibility to the collective, in order to deceive and manipulate the public.
thinking outside the box, genius, networking, computers, revolutionary changes, crises

Floods in Vermont from Hurricane Irene

In the Neptune in Aquarius era we had the opportunity to consciously recognize our inter-relationships with each other on this planet... and that what anyone does on one part of the globe, affects us all.  Part of this has been coming to understand our relationship to our environment, and our affects on it.  And in recognizing what effects we were having.... do something about it.

Nine out of 10 of the hottest years on record occurred in the past 13 years (the Neptune in Aquarius era), with the hottest years ever measured (since the system began in the 1880’s) in 2005 and 2010. 

With increased heat, there is increased moisture in the air, resulting in unprecedented monster storms and flooding.   In 2005, Hurricane Katrina was not only the most costly hurricane, it was also one of the 5 deadliest hurricanes in US History. In 2010, unprecedented monsoons in Pakistan resulted in 20 million people being displaced.  In January, Australia also saw unprecedented floods encompassing an area that was larger than France and Germany combined.  For the past year it has rained in Columbia almost continuously resulting in their facing their worst natural disaster in history.  Terrifying mile-wide tornadoes cut whole swaths out of towns and villages in the Midwest of the US this year.  And record snow falls blanketed the Northeast US last Winter, while record amounts of snow and rainfall resulted in unprecedented flooding of the Souris and Missouri rivers.  And monster Hurricane Irene, the size of Western Europe, dumped heavy rains in the Northeast US, destroying whole towns, and devastating the entire state of Vermont. 

“What’s happening with the planet’s climate right now needs to be a wake-up call to all of us.” ~ Dmitry Medvedev

With larger storms, there are also going to be increased periods of time between these monster storms that suck up all the moisture, resulting in record droughts.  Droughts have more than doubled since the 1970’s.  We’ve seen this in Russia last year... and currently in Texas and Arizona, China and France.. and the poor beleaguered nation of Somalia.  The National Center for Atmospheric Research warns that huge areas of the world’s most populated areas will be experiencing extreme drought conditions within decades resulting in famine and starvation for millions.

Ironically with all this flooding.. the end result is a scarcity of fresh water and food.  Paleontologist from the University of Washington, Peter Ward, has predicted: “The scary thing is that we’ve got an intersection of declining freshwater and too many people... And the freshwater decline is due to global warming.  The lowest lying lands have the richest soil, and these are the lands that the rising sea level is going to salinize.” 

"The only plausible explanation for the rise in weather-related catastrophes is climate change," Munich Re, one of the two largest reinsurance companies in the world, recently stated. "The view that weather extremes are more frequent and intense due to global warming coincides with the current state of scientific knowledge."

 So why aren’t we hearing about this across the air waves?  Why isn’t this being made a priority?  We can partially blame the astrological weather... Neptune in Aquarius.. the manipulation of the collective through lies and misinformation.  And we can also blame ourselves. 

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

In Al Gore’s article, The Climate of Denial, he points out that the major polluters themselves, along with the Ideologues that promote them, are actually bankrolling ‘pseudo-scientists’ in order to create doubt about climate change.. despite the fact that 98% of climate scientists say that the evidence is irrefutable.  These same corporations and individuals buy elected officials with bribes that the politicians themselves have now made legal.  And they spend millions of dollars on misleading ads in the mass media.  There are 4 anti-climate lobbyists in Washington, DC for every Senator and Representative in Congress. 

We were being given an opportunity to make radical and necessary changes.  Yet the United States, has not only refused to keep up with the rest of the Western world in acknowledging that there is a problem, and doing something about it, but have made concerted efforts to refute the actual evidence. 

With Neptune back in Aquarius... we’re being beckoned to have another chance, before Neptune enters Pisces again next February... the sign of dissolution.  Through Pisces we have the opportunity to work together, as one common community, swimming in this same ocean of life together.  We can be willing to make small sacrifices for the greater good of humanity and our world, or we can ignore and deny all that we have been consciously made aware of... and suffer the toxic consequences. 

Libya finds Thor's Hammer

Over the weekend, rebel forces in Libya virtually took over Tripoli, the capital of Libya.  Coined “Operation Mermaid Dawn”.. rebel fighters came into Tripoli by sea, where they joined forces with sleeper cells within the capital.  The operation took place just as a forceful planetary combination, sometimes referred to as Thor’s Hammer, was moving into position.  Right on critical points of the Libyan chart for Independence (dated 12/24/1951; 12:00 AM).  It will become exact on Wednesday-Thursday.

This configuration is made up of at least 3 planets, where 2 planets are square to one another, while each is then sesquiquadrate (135°) to a 3rd planet.. in this case retrograde Neptune, which has returned to Aquarius for some unfinished business.  Neptune is the planet of ideology, and in Aquarius, can represent a somewhat unusual form of ideology.  Saturn has been sesquare Neptune on and off from the sign of Libra, the sign of agreements, equality and fairness.  When Saturn comes up against Neptune, ideology is tested for soundness in the face of reality. 

Gaddafi has certainly proven to be extremely detached, not only from his own people, but often from reality in general.  Referred to as a ‘mad dog’ by President Reagan, he has had a reputation for being at least, somewhat, if not totally, out of touch.   Beset with delusions of grandeur, he rose to power on the wings of socialist ideals, only to abandon those principles in favor of despotism and tyranny.  It’s almost as if Neptune has come back to meet Saturn in order to route out yet another mad dictator of the day.

Libya is currently experiencing a Saturn Return, in which Saturn is at the same degree as it was at the time of its independence in 1951.  This is a time in which the leadership and structure of the country would be tested for soundness and strength.  And with Neptune in Aquarius (idiosyncratic ideology) undermining the stability of that structure, all it needed was a decisive shove.  People will put up with a lot when restrained by fear or apathy... which is kind of the way that sesquiquadrates operate, until those things that are oppressing the people are exposed...  and then along comes an active square from Mars, as it did this weekend, and what had appeared to be an irritation became an all out force to be reckoned with.  And with Mars on the Libyan Uranus, it came on swiftly and to many, unexpectedly.  They found Thor’s Hammer.

Inspired by the Uranus/Pluto (Revolutionary) Spring Uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, Libyans began holding peaceful protests after the arrest of Fathi Terbii, a human rights attorney, about 6 months ago. Gaddafi, not one to pander to insolent protestors, gave a televised speech in which he promised to hunt down protestors “inch by inch, room by room, home by home, alleyway by alleyway.”  Demonstrators were soon besieged with military force and violence, which only escalated the resistance into an all-out civil war.  NATO intervened in order to protect the civilians... eventually siding with the rebels.

Thor’s Hammer is anchored in place by a Saturn/Neptune sesquare that perfects on the 24th of August.  Under such weather, delusions confront reality, ideals struggle to find purchase... and madmen can be toppled from their thrones.  Mars, currently raging in Cancer, the sign of the people... is joining the configuration this week bringing to a head, the anger and frustration of a society that has struggled against what have appeared to be at times, insurmountable odds.

There’s another Thor’s Hammer configuration coinciding with this one.  This week, Mercury is slowing down to its station next Friday... and as it does so it will set off the revolutionary Uranus/Pluto square.  Mercury is communications, messages, news...and is sitting on the Libyan Pluto, the planet of rebirth and transformation.. we’ll be talking a lot about revolutionary activity in Libya this week... And as the walls come tumbling down, as the crumbling out-worn institutions are unable to keep up with the new generation.. the next step will be the rebuilding.

Uranus in Aries, the revolutionary warrior, is within a few degrees of Jupiter (freedom) in the Libyan chart, and when people celebrating on the streets of Tripoli and Benghazi over the weekend, were asked what this all meant to them.. people replied simply, “Freedom.”

Uranus ~ Pluto: The Underbelly Revealed

There is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in the higher. 

~ Victor Hugo (Les Miserables, 1862)

Pluto in Capricorn is showing us where power has become overwhelmingly leveraged towards the few, at the expense of the rest.  Pluto engenders the seeds of revolution, and the fall from power of those in high places, if need be.  It’s about the redistribution of power.  In Pluto weather the dark underbelly is revealed... And when in Capricorn it lays bare the underlying problems and weaknesses in the existing structures, governments and seats of power.  And when planets come to stress this position...as they have been this year, those structures are challenged for stability, strength and soundness. 

When Uranus in Aries (freedom, initiative and individuality) comes up against Pluto in Capricorn (plutocracy, oppression, fascism) there is a desire to be free at all costs.  When Aries ruler, Mars, entered the Cross through Cancer (the sign of the people) in early August we saw a lot of passion and emotion erupting.  Mars the planet of action, incited by a strong urge to defend and protect, entered the arena with Uranus and Pluto.  But the passion and anger that ensued did not arise out of nowhere.  It was due to circumstances that people had been tolerating for some time.  Powder kegs were ready to explode... all they needed was the spark to ignite it. 

London Riots ~ 2011

Astro-weather manifests in the areas that are most vulnerable and fertile.. where the circumstances exist for just this sort of explosion to occur, as we saw in London last week.  At the roots of those riots, are causes that had been festering, relative to the fact that power has been gradually concentrated at the top (Capricorn) at the expense of the people (Cancer) at the bottom, creating a state of unstable inequality.  Without a strong base to sustain the weight at the top, the result will lead to inevitable instability. 

 MSNBC world news pointed out:
The looting and rioting had nothing at all to do with the killing of Mark Duggan. That was the spark. The bonfire had been prepared by years of neglect, fueled by the anger of young men with no stake in the system, angry at everybody and quick to exploit fury at the killing of a local man....

London was not the only place to see violence last week.  In Santiago, Chile, violence broke out when student protests for changes in public education, got out of hand.  The protest began peacefully, just as they did in London, but then masked protesters broke off from the main crowd, in order to burn cars and barricades, loot storefronts and confront the police.  The police responded in kind with tear gas and water cannons.

If a problem is revealed... you can try to ignore it in hopes that it will just go away, you can blame the victims, or you can do something about it.  Ultimately, not being part of the solution, means that you are part of the problem.  And in ignoring the problem, it will only get worse, and that much more difficult to fix later on.  Among the many hot spots of unrest in the world today, one of the most heart-rending and frustrating is Somalia.

Drought in Somalia

Somalia, a country that is no stranger to war and drought, is experiencing what is being called the worst humanitarian disaster in history.  Over 3 million lives are at stake, where the risk of dying of starvation is imminent.  Over 29,000 children under the age of 5 have already died of famine.  War-torn and ravaged, politics has played a heavy role in this area of the world, where competing warlords, and a violent civil war have terrorized its citizens.  A 2-year drought, incessant conflict and poverty have created one of the most vulnerable places on the earth.

This crisis was not created overnight.  Twenty years of conflict in the region has resulted in serious consequences that can no longer be ignored.  And there has been a cry out for both the Somali government, as well as the International Community to sponsor peace-making initiatives in the nation.  Compound this with a flagrant disregard for the environment that has contributed to climate change... and global disasters are bound to be imminent in our most fragile areas such as this. 

The catalyst for change during Uranus/Pluto cycles, usually comes through a series of events that allow people to see that things are not as they thought they previously were.  A lot of upheavals occur at these times, but also a lot of good reforms can take place, changing the world in a very positive way, such as has been seen with civil rights movements throughout the Uranus/Pluto time line.  The reforms that do take place are often revolutionary in themselves, in that they change people’s perceptions on a grand scale. 

Pluto in Capricorn: 2008-2024
Uranus square Pluto: 2011-2015
Mars square Uranus opposite Pluto: Aug 3-13th, 2011
another hot week to watch next year:
Mars opposite Uranus square Pluto: July 14-21st, 2012