Idolatry
The point of time when it is to be decided whether any affair or course of action must go on, or be modified or terminate; the decisive moment; the turning point.
Pluto is going direct Tuesday and several things are happening at the end of this generational transit. In astrology, Pluto, Scorpio, and the 8th house are associated with crisis as the agent of transformation. Survival itself is often threatened which makes the situation especially significant.
There is no doubt that change is imminent politically since both parties are campaigning on the identical issue, a rather unusual phenomenon. There's the original and the last minute copy. "Change you can xerox" has turned out to be prophetic.
Pluto in Sagittarius brought to the surface religious extremism and here, at the point of crisis, the most extreme candidate yet has appeared onstage for consideration. Pluto at 29 Sagittarius on election day looks very much like a point of decision.
One of the most interesting themes of the Pluto transit has been the worship of icons gone to a zenith with the emergence of the television show, American Idol. This election has been a fascinating re-telling of this tale for a grand finale.
There's a common desire in humans to look upward for guidance and to anthropomorphize their god-figure(s), a characteristic of Sagittarius. All through history the collective has created idols and destroyed them, and now as this transit draws to a close, the excess the country has displayed in elevating these objects is pretty hard to miss. Adlai Stevenson once said that "Anyone can be president in America". I believe he was correct.
What's so interesting to me is the evolution. At first one of the candidates was given the messiah identity and massive crowds came to hear him preach. He was also painted as a rock star and as an omnipotent dictator. But then the opposition compared him to Moses and Hollywood superstar Britney Spears bursting the bubble of illusion. Good thing. A country in trouble doesn't need a pop star as a president. But then something unexpected happened. A new idol suddenly appeared to take his place. A new savior.
The problem hinges on USA Neptune at 22 Virgo in the 9th house and the people's elevation of leaders to mythological status, glamour, glitz, and fake image being sometimes preferred. Uranus in unrealistic Pisces just made a long station opposite when the original icon reached his height. As he came down the new moon in Virgo delivered the replacement. Next up -- the full moon at 22 Pisces just where Uranus was originally. Will America smash her idols for good this go-round? Tune in to the temple on Nov. 4th and find out.
The end result is knowledge concerning religious ritual and the lack of substance that has been elevated to the level it's reached now. Pluto in Capricorn, with the next political phase starting, does not suggest empty glamour, nor does it indicate ideological extremism. What to do with the need to worship is still unknown.
Yes, change it is. Crisis. Here at almost 29, everybody's talking about it.
The purpose of a Pluto transit is to strip away pretense and get to fundamental satisfaction of desire, releasing excess in preparation for spiritual development. After going through layers of purgatory, through rites of initiation, trials and tribulations, the native is ready to see the hidden treasure formerly protected by Pluto in Hades where the Elysian Fields of paradise exist. One can make a choice to retrieve it or not. In all charts, in everyone's lives, there's a treasure to grasp as Pluto leaves Sagittarius for good. Easy to find? It should be.
posted by jm at 3:30 AM
35 Comments:
There's a common desire in humans to look upward for guidance and to anthropomorphize their god-figure(s), a characteristic of Sagittarius.
Is this a clue as to why Sag is a centaur?
This post especially interests my Pluto in Scorpio placement :)
Very well written as usual, I got more and more interested in what you have to say over the months.
Is this a clue as to why Sag is a centaur?
Most likely. It's interesting that half animal, half man actually could represent half human, half god.
Sagittarius is the breaking point to the transpersonal sector of the chart after the basic human lessons have been learned and the native starts to move beyond the concerns of the earth realm. It's something to think about, joe, that the centaur could actually see the god nature in man while the animal represents the human part. I'll have to give it some thought.
Here with Pluto at 29 the schism looks pretty sharp. The trick is allowing the less than godlike part its expression. Although right now that part looks threatening, maybe it shouldn't be. We're stuck with the "lower" half of ourselves, necesarily so.
So the centaur could be saying we're OK as is. As long as we aim high.
I suppose as long as we can perceive ideals, then things are all right.
Very well written as usual, I got more and more interested in what you have to say over the months.
I wonder why that is. Is it me, you, or it?
Maybe the schizo place we're at now is recognition of the higher half and the juxtaposition is needed to point it out in order to move on. I have to find some justification for this madness!
The three. You posted at 1:11. Perfect.
Good! A sign.
Totally depressed today. Looks like Obama and the Democrats are doing absolutely nothing to stop the slide... I honestly can't stand this. Maybe tomorrow will be better, but it seems like the country, the media, and more than half the population are simply out of their minds.
Maybe I should swear off blogs for a month. I've done that before!
John, guess what? I agree with you. It's very depressing. Tragic at the moment. And they are out of their minds.
This is the thing that has always bothered me so much. Psychotic things go an as if they are perfectly acceptable. No one speaks up.
Obama can't do anything so it's better not to waste his energy. The whole country just got blind-sided but it's no one's fault in particular. I think it has to do with the idol worship I wrote about. And this is the pits, the very bottom. He's doing the right thing by essentially ignoring her. The exact right thing. Almost everyone else is biting at the bait. There's no reason to even analyze her. Let her go. The race is between Obama and Mccain.
The point is to leave her and move on. Walk right on by. Don't fall into the trap even if the public does. It's a test of each one of us. She represents the spook factor. If we abandon everything and follow it, we stay paralyzed in fear. It's easy to believe that the group is going to drag us back into hell every time but that's where faith comes in. So keep your mind on the full moon coming up since it's so mathematically perfectly in synch.
This will pass. It's necessary for the learning. It's important not to think of Obama and whether he's sliding and losing the election - that can't be determined. It will take about a week or two to see how the states are responding.
This is really a time of crisis and we are always always trying to learn techniques for coping with them.
There's another angle here. Something seems to be wrong with McCain. I noticed in his speech that he forgot her name, which is common for him and his cognitive breakdown in general, but others are seeing signs of a stroke. No one knows whether or not it's more of the same or if he's really deteriorating. I think he is. So if he has an episode, possible hospitalization, the game alters again.
It's best not to worry about Obama. Haven't you been here a million times, doubting him, and he always pulls through and gets it fixed? Now is not the time for him to do anything.
The real question is about you, your self-doubt, and the techniques you can discover to strengthen your personal faith and confidence. The thugs won't hurt you and neither will anyone save you. It does what it does. It's useless for you to say you are stayiong away from the blogs because you know damn well you won't!!
Trust in the goodness of life is Sagittarius. How can we find that unless we are afraid? Unless faith bails us out occasionally.
I'm going to take back what I said in my earlier
comment about McCain's chart being more interesting for its transits now. Wow was I wrong. In considering it over the past day, I see that he is a man of transformative destiny, though, I submit, it is a destiny that mainly does away with those causes he is most closely allied with.
In looking at the 11am birth chart, one immediately
sees the midheaven Mars in Leo and tenth house Sun in Cancer and wonders why he didn't stay in the military. The answer is that (all details to follow from his, and other, entries at Wikipedia) he was considered unfit for a sea command because of wounds he suffered as a POW. I'll get to Chiron shortly.
That very imposing Mars is also his least-aspected
planet, a distinction closely followed by his Sun.
These apparently strong requisites for command are, so to speak, mainly disconnected. No wonder top command positions eluded him. (And probably why the role of Commander-in-Chief has such an appeal.) Sailors are notoriously superstitious, and one wonders if McCain with his Saturn-Neptune opposition sq. Jupiter was considered bad luck by his peers. (Months before he was shot down, his plane was at the center of the disastrous fire aboard the USS Forrestal, which he rather miraculously survived.) He is an avid recreational gambler, and has acknowledged making rash, losing bets in his life.
For me, the real story of John McCain, is in his
Jupiter-8th house Chiron opposition, squaring his
Mercury, Venus, Saturn and Neptune, an epic of
expansion and hurt which, for some reason has been played out in the public eye for most of his adult life.
Every major event in his public life has coincided with a profound change in the wider movements they were associated with. He was shot down at the height of the American involvement in Vietnam in Oct. '67, when still less that half of the American public thought the war was a mistake. (The majority came to think so after the Tet Offensive began that next January.) The day following McCain's March 14, 1973 release, Richard
Nixon threatened to again ramp up the American presence in Vietnam, a proposal so unpopular that U.S. withdrawal started almost immediately thereafter.
McCain's involvement in the '87 Keating Five financial scandal not only marked the collapse of the nation's savings and loan institutions, but led to the political downfall of the other four senators involved with him (though John Glenn got somthing of a pass) all of whom were Democrats, opening the way to Democratic losses in Congress and eventual minor-party status.
While I do not see him as an instigator of these
broader collapses, neither does he strike me as master of his own destiny. Rather his public woundings appear to be connected to the wider disorders of the times, and his mere presence can be an indicator that major culture-changing moments are at hand.
Even when McCain won election to the senate, he
replaced the retiring Barry Goldwater, the Old West
conservative famous for saying things like "Jerry
Falwell can kiss my a**" and not giving a damn if a
soldier was gay, so long as he could shoot strait.
McCain, as much as he admired Goldwater, has become emblematic of the new Sunbelt conservatism, which prizes conspicuous consumption and fundamentalist religion at the expense of the old orthodox conservative principles of prudent finance and a live-and-let-live social order.
McCain's Sun/Uranus trine certainly conveys the mantle of maverick, but something has held him back from being a genuine reformer. The Neptune/Uranus trine perhaps shows it is a dream of glory which he can never quite grasp.
The axis of McCain's midheaven neatly bisects Leo, his ascendent does nearly the same in Scorpio. This, to me anyway, indicates a figure exactly on a tipping point. Consider symbolically also his birthplace in Panama, that dividing line between two huge continents. McCain is most definately on a transitional life mission, one he avidly accepts. However, those higher orders he has been most identified with historically end up being swept away, somewhow leaving him to survive.
McCain's role in life has never been as an agent of change, that is only the story he tells himself and which others may like to believe. He is instead an actor through which one might view the wider transformations of our times.
-- jag
The problem is that the evil represented here -- hate, drilling, killing, etc. -- is not the parties or the players. It's in the human consciousness and we have to learn how to live with it. What to do with it. We all have the receptors in our brains probably for evolutionary purposes. The fear is what it reveals about our own selves. Hate responding to hate and the game continues. Always blaming the other.
Electing McCain doesn't mean evil triumphs, just as Obama is not necessarily the good. The fact that mostly everyone is fixating on the evil now is the problem. It will not go away. We never learn. We have to learn how to live side by side with it since it exists side by side in each and everyone's brain.
The most dignified and wisest choice now is to let it be there. To accept it. Just as the last 8 years had virtually nothing to do with Bush and Cheney, nor with the stoopids people like to blame reality on. We are all implicated.
If reason prevails and goodness takes the lead now, it would be a relief. There is never a guarantee. But the chances are improved if each individual stops the fear and hate in a trillion small ways. First. Don't hate her. That's the lure. She's a pawn in the game.
Trust yourself.
I have no choice. Since the government is elected by the whole country I have to accept the collective decision. So agonizing all the way is merely am exercise in self-indulgence. The clever ones who want a great life always see an alternative for themselves.
My dictum again:
I do what I do, you do what you do, and it does what it does.
Rather his public woundings appear to be connected to the wider disorders of the times, and his mere presence can be an indicator that major culture-changing moments are at hand.
Yes. It's all about Uranus transit his Saturn in Pisces opposte Neptune in virgo, and the bigger Saturn-Uranus opposition. Pisces-Virgo. Health, physical and mental.
You are wise, jag, very wise to focus on Mccain. I'll dissect some of this later. He's helping the country and I know it's hard to see, but maybe astrologers can assist. I was waiting to go into his role, but maybe now's the time. Together we can all figure this out and participate with consciousness.
Good input. Thanks heartily.
As I've said before, the Uranus-Neptune mutual reception is trying to alter brain routes. Virgo-Pisces and all this cognitive dissonance and craziness. Mental illness. How can that be accomplished without actually going nuts? This a good sign. We're almost there! We are in real schizo-land. For the moment.
And just for the record -- if she stays on the ticket there is no way McCain can be elected. I think she's our guarantee. Might as well enjoy the ride. We really are all in this together.
Thanks, jag and jm. This is the kind of astrological in-depth stuff I crave. Just watching knowledgeable people go at the aspects and relationships adds to my growing store of astro-knowledge. I just hope I can retain it all! I struggle just to recall which planet rules what sign, is exalted or in fall in which sign, etc....
I take that back. There's no way I'm going to "retain it all." I'll settle for some of the more fundamental points that will support a broader knowledge base later on.
That is one truly outstanding piece of commentary
OK. This is the Pluto crisis and I think I'm just in the mood to go into some in depth astrology. I invite all who want to contribute to do so.
I'm stunned at the intensity of the moment and I'm not going to hold back in participation. I feel it and I'll follow it through.
This frenzy has a very hard edge to it and it makes sense with Pluto. I'll try to go in logical increments.
First of all, I'll let you in on a little secret if you're interested in the result of the election. The answer is in Joe Biden's chart. Remember Saturn at 18 Virgo opposite Uranus at 18 Pisces? Joe has an MC at 17 Virgo and IC at 17 Pisces. This is the clearest indication of the outcome.
Saturn on his midheaven is a change in status and a new position of authority. Uranus on the IC is a separation from home. This is a radical change for Joe who stayed at home all through his career. And I think he is one really important piece in the puzzle. His Scorpio stellium in the 12th hides his position, but it's there.
Now. Even if the result is known it doesn't diminish the necessary sensations on the road to get there and it will be intense with Pluto at 29. I'll go through it slowly. It's so fascinating.
The first and foremost thing to recognize is how little power leaders have. We give it to them. Remember Obama? The scary dictator and messiah? he's nothing now. The people just created another monster. That's exactly how it works. If the people want a sane, good leader, that's what they'll project in whoever is up there. I can't repeat enough how important it is to understand this.
The problem is this. We have to go along with collective need. The leaders we select are absolutely the right ones for the time. We don't like to identify with the violent and hateful among us but they are part of the system and will remain. Now is a good time to work around it.
At the same time, the figures now could represent the death of whatever it was that led this country to this time of war, torture, fear, terror and so on. So the group frenzy might do it. Hang on and be cool. The best is yet to come!
Great post, jm. Much meat for mental mastication. (Oh, y'all get your minds out of the gutter.)
... the centaur could actually see the god nature in man while the animal represents the human part. ,,, Here with Pluto at 29 the schism looks pretty sharp. The trick is allowing the less than godlike part its expression. Although right now that part looks threatening, maybe it shouldn't be.
Like that, I'm masticatin' heavily on that. Because my Mercury is at 29 Sag, and my writing seeks to conjoin the comically human with the sublime divine.
my writing seeks to conjoin the comically human with the sublime divine.
I'd read that.
And now that I've read through the comments, mine just above seems incredibly lame.
Apologies.
Love your remark that Obama USED TO BE the "messiah"-like "scary dicator." Now he's the Sane Guy. Sarah P picked up that Messianic, scary-tyrant vibe and is running with it.
Thank you, Barracuda!
You were right about the real question, of course. Heh. Many other excellent observations in your reply, thank you, and I agree with all of 'em.
Are you nuts too??? I love your comments. And mastication is one of my favorites, although not popular with the crowd. It says it all.
Also. I don't accept apologies. Not unless you've REALLY done something. I've always said that an apology is entree to do it again. No wonder I'm not always the most popular person.
Incredible yesh. He's the not risky one now and I think this is going to stick. She became an Obamenon at her own peril. She's no Obama. I have my doubts about her ability to handle the messiah mantle. Sarah is running all right. Vice-president they say. The worst Brecht-type playwrights could never get this captured in all their cynicism. The German philosophers couldn't even get it in ink. Maybe Salvador Dali could get some of it.
It's quite fascinating to see where O-man is going to take it. The calm leader with his little crowds. It's hilarious, ridiculous, sorry, tragic and suspenseful, among many other things. He aced the nomination speech and then went to the next phase, smoothly and with his customary grace. The others are sad sacks as usual.
Meanwhile, the economy collapses.
John!!! You're alive! I have faith in you. A good man is at risk in this world. But protected, I believe.
I feel a lot like you do but circumstance DEMANDS that I remain philosophical and try to get myself right. I use the insanity for my own purposes whenever possible, being the opportunist that I am.
Emotional people are the best!
Plus. I think this one's going to work out in our favor.
The most dignified and wisest choice now is to let it be there. To accept it. Just as the last 8 years had virtually nothing to do with Bush and Cheney, nor with the stoopids people like to blame reality on. We are all implicated.
Absolutely.
The fact that mostly everyone is fixating on the evil now is the problem. It will not go away. We never learn. We have to learn how to live side by side with it since it exists side by side in each and everyone's brain.
Yes. Integration/wholeness/balance. Walk that tightrope without thinking about it. We have to own up to this stuff -- self-awareness! -- or else we only see it in others, and round & round we go.
Obama's self-awareness radiates energy. I could go on, but I think I'll just vote.
Here are a couple of possibilities...
Say Obama cruised to victory with barely a struggle. Nice.
Or suppose he had a titanic fight which we felt every second of, crushed and pushed every step of the way until in one giant release he triumphed, bringing a moment of indescribable ecstasy to all those who pulled for his victory.
Which one would you take? I'm not sure, myself. Looks like the first is off the table, anyway. Probably the second too.
HA HA HA HA!!
Obama's self-awareness radiates energy. I could go on, but I think I'll just vote.
You're a joy, john.
I'm going to keep trusting him. And us.
If an apology is the entree, what's the hors d'ouevre?
HA HA HA HA! I see you didn't last long in your sorry state!!!
It's interesting how my Pluto in the 5th has been intensely activated lately... sending me deep into my own creative undertakings for healing (virgo in 5th) and transformation... I feel the weight of being generational... tuning right in... right through... into the impossible - I go!!!
And yes, great insights shared here, loved the parts about Chiron.
Chiron started this thread.
Hey. I love your blog. It is ridding me of much ignorance, and therefore, fear. I have a Virgo North Node and sometimes find myself paralyzed and unable to help anybody, though I want to.
Thanks for boiling it down for me like you do. My Jupiter conjuncts your Sun. We are kindred spirits. I am always provoked to make a comment, but after writing it, I erase it. I've gotten sensitive to my inner criticsm lately. I appreciate the way you and others speak up. I have Mercury in Pisces, just this side of the first house line. I love being behind the scenes, would rather you not notice me, but in a flash, I'll get attention purposely or not. The more purposeful, the less need for embarrassment.
Since you wondered in a previous comment... I call myself J.G. because of my 17' Sag MC, and natal Jupiter in Sag. (right now being conjuncted by Pluto) a mid-point between my Sun and Moon in the 10th house. The moniker came to me one day when I was setting up an e-mailbox identity. In some moments, it is an appropriate handle. In other moments, Uranus's, Neptune, or Saturn's girl could be applied. And, naturally, I always take my Venus, Mars and Mercury wherever I go.
I have been interrupted so much today. I started this comment over an hour ago. Uranus's girl here. He's been hovering on points in my chart for years now; currently on my progressed Mercury. I loved your piece on Uranus and the picture you found to represent that energy. That made me laugh. I love to laugh.
Keep up the good work, jm. The comments are always meaty too. Such food for thought helps me keep calm in my environment. I can detach - I have air sun and moon - though they are in water houses.
See what I mean about a water sign Mercury in a fire sign house? I was only trying to preview my comment - probably going to erase it.
Published.
Sigh.
Anything more to add...? Nope that's about it. I could apologize about it's being so long. I'd like to think I would have edited out some of that.
J.G., I'm so glad you got published! No need to edit. I like words!
Thanks for the encouragement. When I started this Pluto was on my Jupiter and it really has been a journey.
Keep talking!
"Or suppose he had a titanic fight which we felt every second of, crushed and pushed every step of the way until in one giant release he triumphed, bringing a moment of indescribable ecstasy to all those who pulled for his victory."
The Uranus opposition to Obama's Mars suggests to me "titanic fight." Also, in the GOP chart, transiting Pluto squares Mars, which we're currently seeing in the id driven McCain campaign. Transiting Saturn is approaching an opposition to the GOP Neptune. Given that deceit, misdirection, and smear appear to sum up the campaign "strategy" of the McCain/Palin ticket, I expect that a fall is imminent by early October.
(fine blog, by the way)
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