December 2007
Fire at the Threshold
For thirteen years Pluto has orchestrated the global drama of outworn belief systems burning into ash. The world has born witness to its church spires crashing down via pedophile-priest scandals, its ancient truths exploded into violence via jihadism, its sacraments turned inside out through popular entertainments such as The Da Vinci Code, and, last but not least, the evisceration of the most essential tenets of what was once universally touted as the World’s Greatest Democracy.
Pluto’s signature is all over the Bush years (it transited, while opposed to Saturn, across the USA chart’s Ascendant in 2000): astrological evidence that the nature of the American Devolution goes far beyond the incompetence of a particular individual or group. It goes beyond the flawed ideology of a political party. Pluto governs the process of decay, which, though slow and frustratingly inscrutable, is a fated process; and one that has to happen before there can be renewal.
The crippling of checks and balances, the elimination of the writ of habeus corpus, the negation of Congressional lawmaking via “signing statements”, the refusal to allow presidential allies like Karl Rove and Harriet Miers to testify under oath, the use of telecommunications companies to spy on citizens in contravention of judicial warrants… these and other radically anti-democratic moves that have made the US chief executive more king than president – every one of them aided and abetted by Congress and, by default, by the populace — collectively constitute a systemic breakdown that cannot be chalked up merely to the bad behavior of an irresponsible leader.
The word evisceration is astrologically apt. The machinations of the past two Bush terms, starting with the election fraud and ending with the explosively unresolved issue of unreliable voting machines, have reached as if with a contaminated scalpel deep into the viscera (Pluto) of the American system. Thus their real significance is in their power of precedent. No matter what party or individual enters the White House henceforth, these dictatorial powers will be lying around “like loaded weapons” for the use of the incumbent to destroy all opposition with impunity.1
December’s transit will probably spur interest in impeachment as the ultimate (Pluto) legal solution (Jupiter) to America’s mortally compromised government. This matches what we see happening in the collective, as a growing number of legal scholars make the case that impeachment is the only cure if democracy is to be safeguarded for the future. As every American schoolchild knows, this is why the articles of impeachment were written into the Constitution in the first place: to keep the republic viable should a given administration get perilously out of hand.
The practical problem here is this: to pursue impeachment the American public would have to detach itself from partisan thinking, and commit itself instead to a rigorously neutral and formal repudiation process. 2 Impeachment would necessitate following the letter of the law; with trustworthy jurists soberly itemizing the specific crimes committed, as in any other respectable legal proceeding. The process would have to be perceived as having a meaning above and beyond Bush-the-individual’s defects and motivations. It would have to be conducted without reference to his fading tenure in office. Trickiest of all, its implications with respect to either political party would have to be held as a moot point. To have the necessary redemptive effect, the impeachment proceedings would have to be credible not only to the public – whose belief in its government has been shredded to confetti for a generation — but to Saturn, the lord of karma.
What astrology identifies as Plutonian about extreme abuses of power is that they undermine to the core the system of which they are a part; and without its center an entity cannot hold. Decay is the only phase that can follow.
But the final chapter of the Pluto- in-Sagittarius story is still to come.
Pluto’s initial foray into Capricorn on January 25th will signal the crossing of a key threshold. The Cardinal Cross transits – whose timing is concomitant with the probable peak oil years – loom on the other side of this threshold, and have been getting a lot of press in astrological circles. Next month’s ingress into Capricorn will inaugurate a period we will be discussing ongoing during the years to come. But the inscrutable god of death-and-renewal has some business to take care of before he crosses that line.
Pluto will spend the remainder of 2008 dodging back and forth between Capricorn and Sagittarius, retrograding back into fire-and-brimstone territory as if he were trying making up his mind whether to finally take leave of Sagittarius for another 250 years. It is against this background that we can best understand December’s climactic multiple conjunction. A period is now ending the likes of which no one alive today has ever seen;3 and the solstice conjunction is going to give us the best chance we’ve had in thirteen years to decode its meaning.
From Dec 11th to 23rd, not only Jupiter and Pluto but the Sun and Mercury too will be overlapping in the sky. Deepening the significance of this period still further is the fact that the tail end of Sagittarius also matches the degree range of the Galactic Center, a frame of reference whose meaning is as unfathomable as it is profoundly inspiring to ponder.
Jupiter expands whatever it touches; Pluto gives rise to raw power. It is pretty mind-boggling to consider the implications of these two merged together. We will see all things Plutonian expressed in exaggerated form.
The conjunction was within a seven-degree orb at the time of the massive oil spills that happened just before and after the New Moon in November (with Neptune, traditional ruler of oil, squaring both Lights). The sheer size of the Black Sea 4 spill, said to be the third largest in history, and the proximity to urban shores of the spill at the Bay Bridge, were perversely successful in putting perhaps the epitomical archetypal dread of humanity – the specter of ecocide — right in our faces, writ large (Jupiter).
In mundane astrology Neptune governs oil by virtue of it being the planet of lubricants. But oil’s meaning in the public mind has shifted to far darker connotations in recent decades, and at this point I would argue for its joint rulership with Pluto.5
Most pivotally, the type of wealth oil creates is peculiarly plutocratic. The war in Iraq, which — despite what several years’ worth of absurdly transparent and recycled propaganda would have us believe — has never been about anything but control of the oil fields, has lined the pockets of a very few military contractors to the tune of 27 billion dollars, all paid for with the tax money of millions of Americans. This scenario is the very definition of plutocracy.
November’s spills, taking place one right after the other, each befouling marine and avian life for miles around and for years to come, were a cosmic signal of the most blatant kind. All who had eyes to see perceived the connection between these blasphemies to Nature and the indulgent human habits oil supports.
Much airtime has been devoted in recent years to the enormous amounts of oil that are required to keep the USA humming along in the lifestyle to which it is accustomed; but in the wake of the spills, the image of oil in the popular mind has acquired a new quality. Dots are being connected about oil’s unique capacity to wreak destruction on myriad levels at once:
–the wildlife immediately killed by inevitable oil-transport accidents such as these;
–the wildlife made gradually extinct due to the ruination of their habitats by the global warming oil creates;
–the destruction of the livelihoods and environments of indigenous peoples wherever in the world oil companies have set up shop (Ecuador, Nigeria et al);
–the degradation, even in the relatively cushy Western world, that King Car has perpetrated upon the quality of life for countless traffic-choked communities;
–the cutting short of millions of lives by diseases created by pollution. (This last realization is still hovering over the threshold of collective consciousness. The fact of there being a direct correlation between America’s high cancer rates and its high usage of fossil fuels — especially jet fuel – will soon join the other sobering realizations as part of America’s common knowledge.)
Finally, the oil spills of November begged one more key question: what was in those containers stacked on top of the Cosco Busan? Very likely the precious cargo responsible for this hideous chain of events consisted of tons of toxic toys, pet food, drugs, and pirated DVDs, created for slave wages by Third World workers to satisfy the multitudes of consumers for whom easy access to these items represents some kind of American Dream.
This part of the puzzle is about wealth and plenty (Jupiter) gone terribly wrong through arrogance and waste. Pluto is forcing us to understand how distorted our pictures of affluence have become.
What would be a positive expression of these two energies combined? This is the question that the transit is trying to provoke. The mass mind is being inspired to come up with pictures of abundance that look like something other than over-feeding the self while befouling the world outside of the self.
The multiple conjunction that follows the Jupiter-Pluto exactitude on Dec. 11 will incorporate the somber meaning of the solstice season, the mysterious nadir of the wheel of the year.6
People and institutions that represent might-makes-right thinking may show their colors in especially outrageous, outsized ways. Like the oil spills, such dramas have the capacity to wake people up to realizations about the powers that oppress them. These powers could take the form of political, environmental, philosophical or religious systems (Sagittarius).
Remember that this transit has thirteen years of Pluto-in-Sagittarius behind it. Like a cosmic exclamation point, it is capping off the whole period. Humanity is being given a chance to massively self-educate about the nature of megalomania in governments, churches and mega-corporations. Disturbing subjects and outright taboos (Pluto) will get even more publicity (Jupiter) than usual.
The Jupiter-Pluto conjunction is traditionally associated with the corrupt use of the media and the publishing industry, in which every nation engages to a greater or lesser degree. Under this transit propaganda is likely to become either so obvious as to provoke a counter-reaction in the public mind; or, less consciously, to induce even more of the populace than usual to numb out with overwhelm, confusion and psychosomatic ailments.
The inflated media circus of the American electoral process is an apt symbol for the energies afoot. Already in overkill mode, the immense waste (Jupiter) of power and resources (Pluto) that the presidential campaigns consume and expend will force alert citizens to come to grips with their meaning in a new way, and decide exactly what their stance to it will be. Mercury (the media) squares Uranus (sudden changes) the day the Jupiter-Pluto conjunction peaks.
Those readers whose charts feature a planet, asteroid or angle at 28º Sagittarius, or one that aspects this degree, will be walking embodiments of the tremendous energy that will be unleashed — whether they do so with awareness or not. Those who have planets in the last few degrees of the other three mutable signs (Pisces, Gemini and Virgo) will feel similarly intensified. Look to the house the transit aspects for clues about where to expect the surge. As always, scoping a transit out ahead of time allows us to take full advantage of its power when it peaks.
On a personality level, Jupiter’s penchant for magnification will emphasize our hidden power places: the secrets most deeply buried. This is a momentous opportunity for those who are willing to face the heretofore un-confronted layers of their psyches. Extraordinary focus will be available to midwife the inner content that is aching to be born.
But even if we are not willing, our repressions may grow too big to hide. Jupiter’s association with increase, combined with Pluto’s tendency to transform whatever it touches from the inside out, suggests that whoever receives a growth spurt from this transit will see their lives changed not only quantitatively but qualitatively.
Jupiter is at its most idealistic in Sagittarius, and Pluto’s influence upon it will inspire millions of truth-seekers to passionate conviction. One’s practice may be as private as a yoga meditation or as public as that of a holy-roller in a mega-church. Whatever form it takes, focusing upon our spiritual path could lead to profound revelations this solstice season.
Far-sighted Sagittarius, at its highest, bestows prophetic vision. With Jupiter contributing the ability to frame these promptings in conceptual terms, and Pluto contributing the kind of awareness that goes beyond personal biases and provincialism, the transit bespeaks the appearance of extraordinary teachers.
Certain public figures whom we revere as role models of wisdom and courage, such as Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, are becoming more prominent during this period. Their enhanced visibility is no more or less than a manifestation of the collective yearnings harbored by the world’s people for truth (Jupiter) and realness (Pluto), after more than a decade of over-the-top global mendacity and corruption. Whether a humble village preacher, a community activist doing outreach in a big city, or a filmmaker whose message about our tumultuous times has finally reached a world audience, those thinkers who are capable of viewing this epoch with detachment, lack of denial and compassion will show up now — because the world needs them to.
Such individuals do not always occupy the tenured university chair or the pulpit of a well-attended church; they may not make the headlines or the best-seller lists. Once-revered universities (e.g. the University of California, now mired in scandal over illegal perks to its millionaire trustees) and religious institutions have been raked over the coals by Pluto for the last dozen years, and their integrity is in the dumpster. Moreover, as we have seen, the corporate media is mired in its own dubious dance with Pluto; and is hardly the voice of truth many presume it to be.
But a destined relationship exists, on a soul level, between every truth-seeker and the truth-teller that he or she needs. The Jupiter-Pluto promise is that each of us will draw to ourselves the teacher or agency of teaching that is exactly tailored to our next level of consciousness. Our responsibility is simply to identify the presence of the visionary when he, she or it appears.
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Notes
1 See Bruce Fern, Constitutional Peril (Palgrave Macmillan 2007).
2 Such an approach would seem to be wildly unlikely given the USA’s obsession with partisanship (for an astrological analysis of this obsession, see http://www.daykeeperjournal.com/aarch07/0706jun/murray.shtml.). However, transits that involve Pluto are known for pulling up by the roots compulsions both cultural and individual.
3 Pluto takes around 250 years to return to a given sign, so its tenure in Sagittarius has been, for all of us, by definition unprecedented in this lifetime. Moreover, the last time Jupiter and Pluto conjoined together in Sagittarius was in 1758. For a discussion of the conjunction through history and in the natal chart, see Shelley Ackerman’s article in the Dec/Jan issue of The Mountain Astrologer Magazine.
4 The Black Sea, indeed. In a tragic cosmic pun, even before the pollutant turned it literally black, the name of the site bore the imprint of Pluto (the color black) and Neptune (governor of seas).
5 Because oil originates underground it has always borne the mark of the God of the Underworld, who, for the Greeks and Romans, had dominance over all subterranean wealth.
6 For a discussion of the esoteric meaning of the solstice, see The Mystery of the Winter Solstice on this website.