While Neptune is very important for its prominence at Zero Aries, both Uranus and Pluto are also prominent, each being sextile to aforementioned Neptune and in fact, trine one another. This is the opening trine of those two planets whose conjunction defined the decade called the Sixties, and a trine is a very positive but soft aspect. While hard aspects like the square are overt and demand attention, soft aspects are covert. That means that while the the Uranus-Pluto energies will be dominant in this decade, people will have to work to see them manifested since the trine is, unlike hard aspects, not visible at first glance.
This aspect configuration will be more noticeable as the decade moves on in 2025 and later with Neptune at the midpoint of the Uranus-Pluto trine and will be seen to mediate between those two planets. What this will mean can more clearly be seen by looking at the symbolic representation of the planets Uranus and Pluto. Not only do we have the midpoint configuration discussed previously in a series called Zeitgeist Changes but also what is called a mini-grand trine, both involving these three outer planets.
The mere shaping and positions of planets can often provide an important insight into the chart without even considering signs, houses, aspects, or planets. For example, once someone unfamiliar with astrology saw my chart, and they immediately wondered why all the planets were on one side of the chart. The astrologer Marc Edmund Jones conceived of seven planetary patterns that describe the general tenor of the chart, and one of those fits my chart. These planetary patterns are so famous that for his 90th birthday, Jones was presented with a birthday cake covered with those patterns in frosting. Locations of prominent planets can also tell a story. In the chart of United States, the position of Uranus at the Descendant can be seen as representing the frontier as described by historian Frederick Jackson Turner in his famous “Frontier Thesis”. Turner said: “At the frontier, the bounds of custom are broken and unrestraint is triumphant.” There are even physical manifestations of astrological configurations. The Statue of Liberty is a Uranian figure and the Port of New York, where the outer world meets the country, acts as the Descendant of the United States, so the placement of that monument is the physical manifestation of Uranus on the Descendant. Similarly, Neptune at the Midheaven is a reflection of the eye at the top of the pyramid (and all its esoteric meanings) on the back of a dollar bill, and for this decade, we will see a powerful example of the positions of the outer planets suggesting the major conflict of this decade. These positions apply to the whole world and not just the United States.
In this astrological configuration involving the three outer planets as seen in the above charts, one can think of a teeter-totter or seesaw with Uranus on one end of the teeter-totter and Pluto on the other end, each one trying to be dominant. The fulcrum of the seesaw is Neptune with all the symbolic meanings we discussed previously; how those issues play out in the upcoming decade will help determine which end of the seesaw becomes the most powerful and controls the world.
All planets are symbols that encompass many meanings, and it is difficult if not impossible to assign an exact translation between the symbols (planets) and an English word or even phrase. These planets represent two opposing forces in this context, and it is difficult to specify exactly what they represent since they are symbols and not readily translated into English words. The best one can do is to give some keywords that conjure up images of what the concepts mean. Remember, they are symbols, and the best one can say is that they are Uranian and Plutonian principles.
Uranus was discovered in the late eighteenth century at the height of the Enlightenment, right before the French Revolution and near the end of the American Revolution. Uranus was the first planet discovered by use of the telescope. It can be seen as representing the people, the popular will, and populism among other things in this context. Uranus was discovered by British astronomer William Herschel; the symbol of Uranus, a stylized H, is in commemoration of the discoverer though there is another symbol sometimes used that is somewhat like the Mars symbol. Uranus mythologically does not fit into the astrological meaning of the planet. Uranus and Gaea (who may have been his mother) were the parents of the Titans, who were the parents of the Greek gods. As the author Richard Tarnas points out, Uranus is more like Prometheus, the Bringer of Fire than like the father of the Titans. In Holst’s composition The Planets, Uranus is called The Magician. It was discovered during the Enlightenment, which means the bringing of light, something that Prometheus did; however, for bringing the light to human beings, Prometheus was condemned to have his liver torn out continually after it regrew each night. Astronomers and speakers of Latin pronounce the name of this planet as Yer Anus since that is how the ancient Romans said it, but astrologers call it Yer a Nus, perhaps to avoid scatological meanings. Either pronunciation is correct.
Pluto was discovered in the thirties, the decade of the twentieth century that saw the rise of fascism, large-scale organized crime, and the development of atomic energy. Atomic energy resulted in the the bombing of Japanese cities thus setting the stage for a new world. The Great Depression had started just four months before the planet was discovered by comparing two photographs of the night sky and noticing that something had moved. The twentieth century is the century of blood, with two world wars and many smaller ones. It was a century that saw the appearance of fascism (though one proponent of that belief, Benito Mussolini, thought it should be called corporatism instead). Now corporatism is called neoliberalism; Zen economist Rob Urie reminds us that neoliberalism is fascism with good manners.
Pluto was the ruler of the underground kingdom, and it is not much of a stretch to believe that Pluto rules what is now being called the Deep State, which is called many things from the military industrial complex to the national security state to what must be the most complete — MICIMATT, a term created by former CIA analyst Ray McGovern; this is an abbreviation for the Military Industrial Congressional Intelligence Media Academic Think Tank Complex.
The key word I use for the Pluto is corporations, but so much more is contained in the concept of Pluto, many which start with the adjective “big”: Big Tech, Big Banks, Big Pharma, Big Agriculture, Big Government, and Big Medicine. The Uranian side of the conflict refers to individual and groups of people as well as small businesses owned by them. This can also be seen in the dichotomy of global versus local, and of course people are very small compared to corporations.
We have two different forces, the Uranian and the Plutonian, which can be simplified as the forces of the people versus the forces of the plutocracy. Of course, this plutocracy (wonder where that word came from?) is much larger than just rule by the wealthy, which is the standard definition. These two forces have between them the various attributes represented by Neptune as mentioned in the previous post. This is the conflict that will play out in this decade, and the outcome of this conflict will determine the future of the world. To put it in simple terms, will the people control the world or will the corporations control the world? Neptune will determine the answer to this question.
Corporate media continues to use the term “conspiracy theory” to denigrate any opinion that differs from what they want you to believe. Calling something a conspiracy theory is like saying, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” Anyone who has not already drunk the Kool Aid of the standard narrative will suspect that this conspiracy theory is something that the corporations don’t want you to believe. The corporate media never seem to learn that censoring something just makes it more attractive. Perhaps the elite feel that they have the masses so well trained after years of indoctrination that it doesn’t really matter what they do.
The two major political parties in the United States pretend to be more or less associated with the Uranian principle, that is with people and their concerns. They do this because they still need the votes of the people since we still pretend this is a democracy. A study by professors Gilens and Page should have disabused us of that myth long ago. At one time, fifty years ago, one could even claim with a straight face that the Democratic Party was more associated with the Uranian principle than with the Plutonian one (after Uranus-ruled Aquarian Franklin Roosevelt set the direction of the party), unlike the Republicans (whose first President was Aquarian Abraham Lincoln), but that has long ceased to be true. At present, we have two political parties that do the bidding of the corporations (Pluto), but the Democrats are much better at pretending that they really support the people (Uranus), so in this fundamental way, they are less honest than their opposing party. This is not really a new concept: Just search for ‘Malcolm X foxes wolves’ to see that this concept was alive and well in the sixties.
In the last five years, the Democratic Party has become incensed at even the mere thought of Donald Trump, so much so that this extreme hatred was even given a name: “Trump Derangement Syndrome” (TDS). Trump made “the people” a Republican issue even if it was as phony as that of “Lunchbucket” Joe of the alternate party. The main problem is that the Democrats have a lock on “the People”, and they do not allow anyone else to drive in their lane — they do not like competition for the Uranus vote — that is not allowed!
Perhaps as a result of all the Sturm und Drang of this decade, a political party will be formed that truly represents the Uranian principle since right now both parties support Pluto. Perhaps this will be called the Populist Party even though that term is now met with great disrespect. This disrespect can be traced back to consensus historian Richard Hofstadter and his book The Age of Reform, which was a history of reforms in the United States between 1890 and 1940. Hofstadter was not always so much a liberal; as a younger person, he flirted with the Communist Party of the USA and once wrote a book calling prominent antebellum southern politician John Calhoun (Andrew Jackson’s Vice President in his first term) “Marx of the Master Class”. For an alternate view of Populism see the new book The People, No by Thomas Frank.
The most important question of this upcoming decade is which of these two principles — Uranus or Pluto — will dominate. Since the Pluto side controls the media which sets the narrative, those who get their information solely from the corporate media will, if only unconsciously, reflect the corporate talking points. Since the main alternative media outlets on the Web are being censored or bought out by the corporate masters, it becomes increasing difficult to get a perspective that does not reflect the corporate viewpoint. People must continue to try or else all is lost. One simple rule of thumb is to disbelieve whatever the corporate narrative is; assume everything they say is a lie. To be more refined, look at each individual item. If the story reads, “More people are moving than ever before” that likely does not involve the desires of the elites, so it may well be true. However, if the headline reads, “Designated enemy of this country attacks this country”, it is almost certainly a lie. Judging the truth of a corporate statement is increasingly difficult; in the sixties, the phrase was “Question Authority”; now it is “Distrust Anyone Who Questions Authority.” It is easier to get your truth from the corporate media since they mostly agree on each story. This is the narrative that you are supposed to believe, but if you go to alternative media, there may be different interpretations for each story, so it is harder to know what to believe or what the truth is. This is where research and the use of critical thinking comes in handy. It takes more work to not accept the corporate line, but if you want to support the Uranus side, it is necessary to think for yourself.
The censoring of dissident views is similar to in an earlier era the Catholic church censoring and excommunicating the early scientist Galileo. He was obviously promoting a conspiracy theory that the Earth revolved around the Sun even though all authorities agreed that the Sun revolved around the Earth. Nowadays, the way of communicating information is much different and much faster than it was in the seventeenth century when all they had were printed books; now the means of censorship is much faster.
Sometimes Satan Comes as a Man of Peace
We must be skeptical of the pronouncements of “authorities” because the Devil often wears a mask so that we are unable to see the truth behind those statements. Satan (Pluto) is called the Father of Lies and Bob Dylan put it more poetically in the quote above. Authorities may give people something they really want, for instance, a guaranteed annual income, but beware of the fine print. Corporations currently disguise themselves with all of the companies declaring that they are feminist or that they support Black Lives Matter. In a simpler time, there was the practice called “greenwashing” where a company portrayed itself as environmentally conscious to cover up some very unsavory practices. Now we have large-scale “Uranus-washing” where Pluto-dominated organizations pretend that they are actually Uranus-oriented. Seen astrologically, this is Pluto dissembling (Neptune) as Uranus.
Uranus by its very nature consists of many who disagree about one thing or another. It would not be Uranus if all the people agreed on everything; that would be Pluto. This is the weakness of Uranus as far as Pluto is concerned. This divisiveness is helpful for Pluto, allowing it to keep the various factions apart and warring. One way of keeping the populace (Uranus) from joining together to fight the powers of the corporations (Pluto) is by getting those same factions of the people to fight among themselves, so they will not turn on their true enemy; if the people were united against the Plutonian forces, those same forces would be in trouble. Pluto knows this and will spend much energy keeping the Uranian forces divided. One popular strategy is to get white people and black people to fight each other so that they don’t see who is really controlling things.
The corporate owned network MSNBC (the MS stands for Microsoft!) convinces Democrats — their target audience — that all dissident beliefs are those of Republicans, Trumpists, or QAnon followers; the corporate owned network Fox convinces Republicans — their target audience — that all dissident beliefs are those of Democrats or the Left or Marxists. Democrats (not elites) and Republicans (not elites) are kept fighting between themselves, so the elites can go back to their business of plundering the world and making as much money as possible even as they destroy the planet. When different factions start to talk to one another, you will hear many say things such as “I never thought I’d be talking to people with those beliefs, but we do agree on this one important thing.” Now they are allies.
It has been said that there are two dimensions, not one, in political discourse: ‘Left’ versus ‘Right and ‘Up’ versus ‘Down’. The terms “left” and “right” were developed during the French Revolution when the supporters of the King sat on the right, and the supporters of the Revolution sat on the left; that spectrum is older than the French Revolution, and the ‘Right’ can be seen as Saturn and the ‘Left’ as Jupiter. Starting at that time, there have been more planets discovered, and that discovery has symbolized the expansion of human consciousness. What was considered in the aphorism given above as ‘Up’ and ‘Down’ can now be seen as Pluto and Uranus. What will be most important in the upcoming century will not be Jupiter versus Saturn but Uranus versus Pluto.
In this new century, we will see that Pluto (elites) are extremely worried that the masses will try to take (back) the power that is supposedly theirs to give. The elites (Pluto) are scared that people will wake up from their Neptunian illusions; all dissent must be extremely limited if not banned. Of course, that is suspicious; thus a certain amount of dissent will be allowed, but only if it stays within acceptable bounds. They don’t want the Overton window (explained in the previous blog entry) to get too large; Pluto defines the terms of debate.
Pluto holds most of the cards. It controls the means of communication and propaganda. Occasionally, a leader arises who could possibly unite the various factions of Uranus; however, these leaders such as Huey Long, Malcolm X, John Kennedy, Fred Hampton, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy have all had accidents that prevent them from leading. It now appears that Uranus will have to merge its many elements itself instead of depending on a leader. Pluto’s problems are that it believes its own lies. If a scheme of Pluto becomes so big and even grandiose, there could be a breakdown and people would see that the emperor is not wearing any clothes. This could be a moment that awakens Uranus.
Note: After this was published, I noticed that Sun was conjunct Uranus with an orb of three minute at the time; that is a hopeful sign.
Thanks to Doug Kellogg for this article, originally posted at https://500yearparty.wordpress.com