What is the nature of political power? What is the nature of personal power? How do the two intersect? These are the questions that interest "House of Cards" writer Beau Willimon, as posed in Adam Sternbergh's New York Times magazine piece of February 2nd. Willimon, a 36 year old playwright and screenwriter, worked on Howard Dean's political campaign in 2003. As some of you may remember Dean's presidential aspirations evaporated in one event on the stump when he had a momentary burst of unbridled enthusiasm which went viral. Dean looked almost crazy and definitely not of presidential material. The campaign's staff took the high road and ignored it, thinking that the detractors had no power over the situation, they let go the reigns, did not respond quickly enough and in the end forfeited power. Dean was history, but the philosophy behind "House of Cards" was born in Willimon's mind.
Pluto rules issues around power. Between 2012 and 2015 Pluto is in a hard aspect, that is Pluto is meeting Uranus in the corner of a square. Uranus rules sudden unexpected eruptions, individual freedom, the urge to break free. Pluto's movements in the sky symbolize the process of our evolutionary progress, destroying what is no longer serving the personal or public good. Uranus creates the impetus which intensifies to the breaking point so that the intrenched power (Pluto) becomes desperate in the struggle to stay in power, often holding on with ruthless force. There are power shifts, which occur suddenly, when these two planets come together. This can be within a country or within a person; and depends upon whether a person or country has a natal placement, most likely the Sun, in the current path of these two planets.
Some persons or countries are born with more of an ability to be flexible enough to juggle the two factions, the Tunisian revolution comes to mind. This event became the forerunner in the series of global uprisings since 2012 when Uranus and Pluto started meeting in the corner of a square seven times, through March 2015. The uprising in Tunisia followed the suicide of a fruit vendor who was harassed one to many times by a government official in December 2010. Ten days after his death in January, the President resigned after 23 years in power, certainly an unusually easy transfer of power that has unfortunately not been replicated.
This transfer of power directly lead to the uprisings in Tahir Square Egypt. Those first events foreshadowed each and every uprising we have seen across the globe since then, all in accordance with the symbolism of Pluto and Uranus in hard aspect-meeting each other in the corner of a square. Each country where we have seen the revolutions or attempted revolutions have their Suns being contacted by Uranus and Pluto. Most are unresolved as of yet. The US's turn will be in April.
But to get back to our original question. What is the nature of personal power? Where does it reside? In the person who usurps it and holds on? Does a moral code come into play? Is power in and of itself a virtue? Can power be transferred easily? Do we know of a person who makes decisions from a sense of "disinterested virtue"? If personal interest and public good collide, can anyone make a decision which might be "political suicide" but is right according to his conscious? How do the Coloradoan politicians who voted for stricter gun laws but were then voted out of office feel? Is it more important to stay in power or sleep at night?
I do not portend to have the answers to these questions. Jon Meacham in his book "Thomas Jefferson The Art of Power" defines power as "the bending of the world to one's will, the remaking of reality to one's own image. Our greatest leaders are neither dreamers or dictators: They are like Jefferson, those who articulate national aspirations yet master the mechanics of influence and know when to depart from dogma." Meacham continues that Jefferson could be both a philosopher, believing in the possibilities for humanity, but maneuver like a politician and bend history to his purposes.
This time period with Uranus/Pluto active resonates more strongly with those persons born at previous times when these two planets were active. Those persons carry the essence within themselves that enable them later in their lives as those planets repeat again, to effect sudden significant revolutions, to understand the transfer power or to ignite brilliant achievements in their field of activity.
Alexander Hamilton, born in 1755, has Uranus/Pluto active in his natal chart. He fought with Washington as an aide-de-camp and as an artillery commander during the years 1777-9 when the two planets were active again. His achievements as our First Secretary of the Treasury, 1789-95 laid the groundwork for a modern nation state with a budget system, a coinage system, a funded debt, a tax system, a central bank, a customs service. These achievements again occurred during the times Uranus and Pluto were active. Men (in the broadest sense) and their times come together.
My sense is that the current event/events approaching in April with Uranus/Pluto affecting the US Sun (and there are other planets at the other two corners this time as well) will have to do with our monetary policy as Hamilton designed and developed it; because that is what was born in one of the the previous eras when these two planets met at their corner square. The other one would be 1873-80. There is of necessity have to be some transfer of power, as that is what these two planets signify. On what level this occurs is not for anyone to know ahead of time. We will have to wait and see and be flexible enough to know to bend with the current of the times.
