So to most everyone's surprise, Chief Justice Roberts sided with the liberal faction of the Supreme Court and upheld The Affordable Care Act as constitutional as a tax. With this one decision as David Brooks quotes: "Roberts has made a period of innovation and change more likely" (NY Times, Friday June 29th). Innovation and change is what Uranus and Pluto's exact squares are all about, exact Sunday the 24th and activated yesterday with the Sun passing over them. If you add another of Uranus' qualifiers (other than innovation) that being of exciting and sudden, then this decision perfectly fits the manifesting meaning of these 2 planets in their current opening square formation. As we wrote about last week, we can expect the sixties with all its progressive legislation to reassert themselves again in the next 3 years as this pattern stays active.
The promise of these times is that despite appearances and bucket loads of money to keep the wealthy where they are, the individual, the 99% cannot be forgotten forever. Thirty million people who cannot afford health insurance or who have been denied coverage will now be entitled to participate as the 1% do. The judicial restraint demonstrated in Robert's decision, who is quoted as saying: "It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices", respects the mandate of Congress to write the laws.
The Court's role is merely to deem a law constitutional or not. The elected officials in the Legislative and Executive branches have the power to make laws that affect their constituencies. Not only is the Affordable Care Act law good for the 99% but Robert's decision also acknowledges that the power lies with the people who vote in their representatives, who write the laws. This is all very progressive (Uranus)-and very Aquarian-the individual counts -not just the corporations (Pluto). With this decision we had a change (Uranus) in power (Pluto).
The other interesting sideline is that Obamacare actually gives individual states the choice of taking the Medicare extension or coming up with a plan of their own to enroll their residents. This particular part of the law will be interesting to watch unfold. Most of the critics of the Affordable Care Act are not happy about having the Federal Government dictate to them, they want to see less Federal Government and more states rights. Is this the beginning of more regionalism here in the USA?
No one is saying all will be happy days from now on. In fact as you remember the sixties had much turmoil and counter reaction to the innovation and change. But that is how progress is achieved each side of the seesaw having their moments. But the feeling now is quite exciting. In fact at a restaurant last night strangers a table next to ours heard us talking about the decision and entered into the conversation. There was an excitement in the air yesterday all around this Village, excitement (Uranus) that I have not felt since Obama was elected and which I also felt in the sixties for a time.
Friday, June 29, 2012
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Things Heating Up...
I had a moment of acute understanding as I was reading David Brooks' op-ed piece in the NY Times, May 31st entitled The Segementation Century. Brooks discusses writer Reinhold Neibuhr's 1949 thesis that historical forces would bring about "the unification of mankind". A solution to the fierce nationalism of the 2 world wars was the thought that by forcing countries to work together (EU and UN), harmony would prevail as their values merged. This anticipated moral, cultural and political convergence never materialized, however, as demonstrated by the news stories from Europe that country after country is facing the prospect of returning to their own currency and leaving the EU experiment.
In fact current polling, Brooks says, by the Pew Research Centers and a World's Value Survey speak about the world becoming more segementated and fractured not less so, even as technology has brought the far corners of the world into our living rooms and started revolutions; we have become less and less trusting of one another. This is true even in this country, where even as we are exposed to an ever increasing variety of contrasting perspectives, we seem to react by narrowing our perspective and confining ourselves to listen only to those who speak our familiar values.
As an astrologer, Neibuhr's thesis "the unification of mankind" is completely understandable as an ideal characteristic of the coming of the "Age of Aquarius". Aquarius is a humanitarian sign, concerned with principles of equality, fairness, justice for all and a redistribution of wealth. I realized as I was reading the piece that in order for us to get to that 'better" place what is not working has to break up. This breakup began in the fall of 2008 with Pluto's sign change into conservative Capricorn and the global financial crisis brought on by excessive greed. The country voted in Obama with the hope that the new era had begun, but one cannot have a new era without the disintegration of the old ways. (Think Bastille)
This "heating up" of the breaking up of the systems, corporations, governments, countries is the stage we are about to begin as planets Uranus and Pluto form a 90 angle 7 times between Sunday June 24th and March 2015. They came to within one degree of each other last year at the Arab Spring, European Summer and Occupy Wall Street Fall. Uranus and Pluto were exactly together in 1965-66, with extended time period being 1960-1972, when this new cycle began. For the next 3 years we will be living through the birth pangs of that seminal period, the sixties, when there was something 'in the air" that for those old enough to remember, was completely different than times before or after. This new order was magical but suddenly disappeared until now when the 2 planets that started it come back together again to make what was only potential then more realistic and sustainable. Some of us will be experiencing it more strongly than others as long standing corruption becomes less and less tolerable as seen from other times in history when these 2 planets were together. (For extended reading please see Cosmo and Psyche by Richard Tarnas)
The conjunctions or oppositions between these 2 planets also occurred between 1533-1545 as the Reformation swept through Europe; 1643-1654 with the English and Puritan Revolutions; 1787-1798, the US Constitution, The French Declaration of the Rights of Man, the French Revolution and the beginnings of the world wide call for the end of slavery; 1845-56 when there were revolutionary upheavals in almost every capital in Europe, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, Dresden, Prague, Rome, Milan and China, Japan, India, and the Ottoman Empire; the years 1896-1907 also saw these 2 planets aligned when all the progressive and radical labor movements throughout Europe and North America were born as well as the militant women's movement and black civil rights movements and Boxer Rebellion in China, the Russian Revolution and Gandhi in India.
The stage has been set now again in these next 3 years for the sudden rise and empowerment of youth and counter culture movements, when great social political revolutions occurred, with the rising and falling of empires, where the balance of power shifted suddenly. Our era will be no different than previous ones. We are called to live through it, each of us playing a part in the hopes that the unification of mankind will actually happen, not forced this time, but hashed out with workable solutions that can be sustained. The world is not coming to an end in 2012 but reforming itself again.
In fact current polling, Brooks says, by the Pew Research Centers and a World's Value Survey speak about the world becoming more segementated and fractured not less so, even as technology has brought the far corners of the world into our living rooms and started revolutions; we have become less and less trusting of one another. This is true even in this country, where even as we are exposed to an ever increasing variety of contrasting perspectives, we seem to react by narrowing our perspective and confining ourselves to listen only to those who speak our familiar values.
As an astrologer, Neibuhr's thesis "the unification of mankind" is completely understandable as an ideal characteristic of the coming of the "Age of Aquarius". Aquarius is a humanitarian sign, concerned with principles of equality, fairness, justice for all and a redistribution of wealth. I realized as I was reading the piece that in order for us to get to that 'better" place what is not working has to break up. This breakup began in the fall of 2008 with Pluto's sign change into conservative Capricorn and the global financial crisis brought on by excessive greed. The country voted in Obama with the hope that the new era had begun, but one cannot have a new era without the disintegration of the old ways. (Think Bastille)
This "heating up" of the breaking up of the systems, corporations, governments, countries is the stage we are about to begin as planets Uranus and Pluto form a 90 angle 7 times between Sunday June 24th and March 2015. They came to within one degree of each other last year at the Arab Spring, European Summer and Occupy Wall Street Fall. Uranus and Pluto were exactly together in 1965-66, with extended time period being 1960-1972, when this new cycle began. For the next 3 years we will be living through the birth pangs of that seminal period, the sixties, when there was something 'in the air" that for those old enough to remember, was completely different than times before or after. This new order was magical but suddenly disappeared until now when the 2 planets that started it come back together again to make what was only potential then more realistic and sustainable. Some of us will be experiencing it more strongly than others as long standing corruption becomes less and less tolerable as seen from other times in history when these 2 planets were together. (For extended reading please see Cosmo and Psyche by Richard Tarnas)
The conjunctions or oppositions between these 2 planets also occurred between 1533-1545 as the Reformation swept through Europe; 1643-1654 with the English and Puritan Revolutions; 1787-1798, the US Constitution, The French Declaration of the Rights of Man, the French Revolution and the beginnings of the world wide call for the end of slavery; 1845-56 when there were revolutionary upheavals in almost every capital in Europe, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, Dresden, Prague, Rome, Milan and China, Japan, India, and the Ottoman Empire; the years 1896-1907 also saw these 2 planets aligned when all the progressive and radical labor movements throughout Europe and North America were born as well as the militant women's movement and black civil rights movements and Boxer Rebellion in China, the Russian Revolution and Gandhi in India.
The stage has been set now again in these next 3 years for the sudden rise and empowerment of youth and counter culture movements, when great social political revolutions occurred, with the rising and falling of empires, where the balance of power shifted suddenly. Our era will be no different than previous ones. We are called to live through it, each of us playing a part in the hopes that the unification of mankind will actually happen, not forced this time, but hashed out with workable solutions that can be sustained. The world is not coming to an end in 2012 but reforming itself again.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
The Venus Transit
A few of you have asked what my take on this time period is and so, belatedly, I am doing so..
We are very used to the Earth eclipsing the Sun's light to the Moon at a Lunar eclipse as we pass between the two, or the Moon eclipsing the Sun's light as seen from Earth at a Solar Eclipse, when they line up directly in front of one another. The size and distance of those planetary bodies fit across each other perfectly. Mercury transits across the face of the Sun about 13 times each century.We are less familiar with the transit of Venus across the face of the Sun, eclipsing a little bit of the Sun's light, as it occurs only in pairs every 8 years and then not again for another 100 years, the last time being this week June 5th-6th.
Venus' orbit around the Sun is inside ours and every 19 months Venus makes an inferior conjunction with the Sun, that is on the same side of the Sun as we are. Over the course of 8 years if you were to plot those conjunctions you would see that they form a pentagram in the sky, returning to the same place every eight years. The first inferior conjunction and the last are very close to the same degree of the zodiac. Eight years ago on June 8th 2004, the conjunction was at 17 Gemini, this year it is at 15 Gemini.
We are living through this special time when this rare event is occurring. The last time we had this 8 year cycle was December 9th 1874, and December 6th 1882. The next time this phenomena will occur is December 11th, 2117 and December 8th 2125, always occurring in Gemini or Sagittarius. We have inferior conjunctions every 8 years but we do not always have Venus transiting or conjoining or eclipsing the Sun, because her orbit can take her just above or below the face of the Sun and not directly in front of Him.
As to what this means..firstly Venus has to do with love, relationships, money, values, self esteem, what we are attracting to ourselves, our aesthetic sense, our artistic side, how we are relating to one other, what we desire, who and what we love. If you go back to June 2004 and remember what was going on in your life then and reflect on what is happening in your life now regarding those Venusian matters you might notice some differences.
I let go of a long term live in relationship in June of 2004, or started the process by sleeping alone. These last 8 years have been a process of increasing my own sense of self worth. This was not a conscious decision then, that that was what I was doing, but I knew that I could no longer live with the pain I was experiencing. It is only in reflecting back that I can see that that is what was happening. Maybe there is something in your life that has increased in value, surely Facebook, which was not even a company then, and the national debt have.
These 2 dates June 2004 and June 2012 become bookends for a section of our lives that might have increased our capacity to love ourselves, another or some possession either more or less so, finding a new set of values to live by. The process that began then will have some sort of resolution or sense of accomplishment now. Is it significant that we have been conscious adults through this time? Significance comes from our perception of it. It is one thing to watch the transit across the Sun but another to read into and reflect upon how these astronomical events can mirror our own evolution. One of my favorite quotes attributed to Socrates through Plato is: "An unexamined life is not worth living".
We are very used to the Earth eclipsing the Sun's light to the Moon at a Lunar eclipse as we pass between the two, or the Moon eclipsing the Sun's light as seen from Earth at a Solar Eclipse, when they line up directly in front of one another. The size and distance of those planetary bodies fit across each other perfectly. Mercury transits across the face of the Sun about 13 times each century.We are less familiar with the transit of Venus across the face of the Sun, eclipsing a little bit of the Sun's light, as it occurs only in pairs every 8 years and then not again for another 100 years, the last time being this week June 5th-6th.
Venus' orbit around the Sun is inside ours and every 19 months Venus makes an inferior conjunction with the Sun, that is on the same side of the Sun as we are. Over the course of 8 years if you were to plot those conjunctions you would see that they form a pentagram in the sky, returning to the same place every eight years. The first inferior conjunction and the last are very close to the same degree of the zodiac. Eight years ago on June 8th 2004, the conjunction was at 17 Gemini, this year it is at 15 Gemini.
We are living through this special time when this rare event is occurring. The last time we had this 8 year cycle was December 9th 1874, and December 6th 1882. The next time this phenomena will occur is December 11th, 2117 and December 8th 2125, always occurring in Gemini or Sagittarius. We have inferior conjunctions every 8 years but we do not always have Venus transiting or conjoining or eclipsing the Sun, because her orbit can take her just above or below the face of the Sun and not directly in front of Him.
As to what this means..firstly Venus has to do with love, relationships, money, values, self esteem, what we are attracting to ourselves, our aesthetic sense, our artistic side, how we are relating to one other, what we desire, who and what we love. If you go back to June 2004 and remember what was going on in your life then and reflect on what is happening in your life now regarding those Venusian matters you might notice some differences.
I let go of a long term live in relationship in June of 2004, or started the process by sleeping alone. These last 8 years have been a process of increasing my own sense of self worth. This was not a conscious decision then, that that was what I was doing, but I knew that I could no longer live with the pain I was experiencing. It is only in reflecting back that I can see that that is what was happening. Maybe there is something in your life that has increased in value, surely Facebook, which was not even a company then, and the national debt have.
These 2 dates June 2004 and June 2012 become bookends for a section of our lives that might have increased our capacity to love ourselves, another or some possession either more or less so, finding a new set of values to live by. The process that began then will have some sort of resolution or sense of accomplishment now. Is it significant that we have been conscious adults through this time? Significance comes from our perception of it. It is one thing to watch the transit across the Sun but another to read into and reflect upon how these astronomical events can mirror our own evolution. One of my favorite quotes attributed to Socrates through Plato is: "An unexamined life is not worth living".
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