It started out with the Sub-prime Mortgage Crisis:
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| Cancer is traditionally associated with home and family |
This was combined with poor bank management and an overall tendency to speculation in the booming real estate industry, creating a so-called "bubble", an unsustainable burst in investments that eventually plummeted.
All in all the turn of events follows perfectly the characteristics of Pluto, and they take place on the Zodiacal axis of Capricorn-Cancer, which has to do with fatherhood and motherhood, and with their respective areas of influence:
For Capricorn it is bread-winning, climbing the social ladder and the exercising of authority - power within formalized institutions, whether it is government, private corporations, interest organizations or clerical communities.
For Cancer it is about domestic economy, marriage and reproduction and raising children, all of which can be viewed from a micro-social as well as a macro-social perspective. On the larger scale it is about national economics, security issues and Nationalism, demographics and basic education.
Shape and symbolism of the Capricorn glyph
I promised in my former post about the highlighted symbols of the Age of Terror to review the dominant symbols of the current Plutonic age, for as much as it has been revealed.
The most conspicuous symbol to re-enter the global arena at the same time as Pluto crashes into Capricorn is the Hammer and Sickle, as it appears in the Communist flag of China. China was announced the second largest economy in the world around February 2011.
The Capricorn is by far the strangest and most uneven symbol in the Zodiac, and the myths associated with it somewhat obscure.
The glyph is composed of two assymmetrical signs, each representing a part of the fabled creature with the head and torso of a mountain-goat and the lower body of a snail, said to be indicative of its contradictory main characteristics - perpetual drive towards the top and slowness of action, combined with some protectiveness of its private life.
It is, in a sense, a politician's sign, because politics require a certain level of moral integrity, particularly chastity, or at least discretion when comes to extramarital affairs.
The two major fables from Greek mythology associated with Capricorn is that of a female goat nursing Zeus in his infancy, and that of the forest demon Pan jumping into the sea to save himself from the rampage of Typhoon, an anarchic monster spawned to wage war against the gods.
After saving himself Pan alerts Zeus of incoming danger, thereby saving the Olympian order and winning himself a place in the night sky. However, his features are altered, and he is from this point on half goat, half sea snail.
Draconian Measures and Widespread Revolt
The events around Pluto transiting Capricorn have been misinterpreted widely around the astro-web to mean either massive clamp-down on civil rights from authorities in general or massive insurrections worldwide, attempting to overthrow the established order as symbolized by Capricorn.
It may not be an entirely false picture, particularly not when thinking about the Arab Revolt spanning 20 or more countries in North Africa and the Middle East, involving every world power on Earth and so far creating a couple of seemingly durable democracies.
However, it may be a widely misleading or at least very generalizing interpretation. If we look at Pluto's journey through Saggittarius, it is difficult to see if "freedom" won or lost in the end.
One some level Freedom came out stronger, again with the democratic revolts in the Islamic world in mind, facilitated by the communication technologies that really took pace when Pluto opposed (stood afar from) Gemini.
On other levels Freedom was curbed if not greatly reduced. Draconian measures were applied in the name of democracy, and two invasions were perpetrated by Western coalitions with massive destructive effect to the local populations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
More likely than radical system change we are talking about the introduction of checks and balances to power, whether it is government oversight of financial institutions in USA, or it is a new composition of the UN Security Council, or the effort to curb the outflow of money to Tax Havens within the Multi-National Corporations (MNC).
Some of these may be influenced or produced by massive and, perhaps, violent protests, and in other cases authorities may clamp down hard and by illegitimate means, as it is the style of Pluto.
Neo-Nationalism and neo-Communism
Another polarization seem to be a resurging of the dispute between economic schools, mainly the Milton Friedman school of monetarism or ultra-liberalism, and the moderate school of Democratic Socialist leaning economy of Keynes and Gailbraith.
On the ideological level there is a current conflict between Tea Partiers and their view of small government plus social and religious conservatism, as opposed to liberalism, European style Democratic Socialism and the Radical Atheism represented by such outspoken atheists as Hitchens and Dawkins.
Some astrologers mention the Catholic Church as a brilliant example of Capricorn values and patriarchal power structure, and the massive damage it has suffered from pederast scandals as one sign of declining power of religion.
Recent reports also point to the emergence of a post-Christian USA, and even if Christianity may survive another century, the distribution of power is also changed by new demographic patterns: The White America now makes only 61 percent of the population of USA, with the largest growth seen in Hispanic community.
Geopolitically, the most characteristic trait is the rise of China as a global superpower, primarily economically, but also regionally threatening, culturally significant and politically assertive, particularly in World 3.
Like the Capricorn itself China has showed incredible singlemindedness of purpose, slow-burning effectiveness and intransigence to political change in spite of adopting some level of free market economics. Their is a calculated bid for power sustained by relentless pursuit according to tested means and carefully crafted policies. There is nothing rash about China, and its a nation unlikely to throw caution overboard or indulge in "Western decadence."
Projecting from previous Pluto transits
However, it seems that Pluto actually curbs and hampers the areas it touches, while it benefits the realms of the opposing sign. This may be due to the fact that Pluto is a representative of Death, often associated with the winter season, and as such its absence from a sign - standing as far away as possible, as it does in an opposition - actually allows the opposing sign to bloom.
Thus we saw innovation and adoption of communication technologies explode during the period in which Pluto opposed Gemini, traditionally the area of sentience, communication and... idle chatter. This began with a major crisis in international relations, and powerful government agencies worked with corporate interests to develop some of the most groundbreaking new communication platforms for the web - Facebook and Twitter, which became crucial to the election of Barack Obama and the relative success of the Arab Revolt.
Before this we saw a robust new physical aestheticism as well as materialism rise to power, when Pluto stood afar from Taurus. This began with an intensified focus on homosexuality, as the main disaster of the area was HIV/AIDS.
Again, it's an advantage to read the previous post about Pluto, analyzing correlation with super-symbols in the past three Plutonic Eras.
Some daring predictions
In science it is a rule that a theory must make a bold statement in order to be falsifiable. I will not claim that astrology is a science, but nevertheless I often felt that astrologers ought to be more radical if they mean to do business, producing some bold statemetns of their own in order to validate their relevancy.
If there is anything to astrology, and if this retrospective analysis is correct, it makes way for a highly counter-intuitive prediction:
In this age we are likely to see a resurge in real estate before 2023, and a political environment in which the vast numbers of homeless in USA, as well as the plight and right of refugees and displaced around the world comes into focus. This may not be as counter-intuitive as it seems at first: A crisis is often an opportunity to focus on the area in question and bring order.
The current trend of micro-loans, however contested and controversial they may be, should also take pace.
Environmentalism may take on a sentimental aspect, as universalists and deep ecologists embrace the concept of Mother Earth. The BP ocean spill in and the earthquake-tsunami-nuclear meltdown that recently struck Japan are good indicators of not only areas of destruction in this Plutonic Era, but also of how these disasters serve to influence the collective mindset towards to embrace new ideas and accept responsibility in the face of new challenges.
Articles and gadgets for improved home security, including CCTV and other monitoring devices, may become mainstreamed and perhaps even the ownership of virtually every household. Look to Great Britain to see how surveillance is implemented on street level.
Conservative values resurface, and marriage becomes a venerable institution - the interest in the royal marriage, also in other parts of the Anglo-Saxon world points to a budding trend of new romanticism.
The 2/3 rule of Pluto transits
Traditionally, astrologers perceive the purpose of Pluto's visit is to destroy in order to recreate.
However, the myth associated with Pluto is that of Persephone being kidnapped by Hades (Pluto, lat.) to become his bride in the Underworld. Persephone complains, and as a compromise Pluto allows her to spend 2/3 of her life above ground, while the remaining 1/3 she must act as his spouse.
Persephone does this, not only because she has been forced, but because the traumatic incident has instilled a sense of affection, loyalty or addiction - however you choose to perceive it - symbolized by her eating a pomegranate offered to her by Hades.
It is a case of Stockholm Syndrome - quite often we find that the emotionally devastating experiences in our life become ingrained in our psyche, and that we develop a strong attachment to lessons learned or habits formed in that period.
Again, backtracking to learn from past Pluto transits we notice that the 1/3 rule is at work. When Pluto left Saggitarius, we found that freedom prevailed, but the ideology of freedom and the power it may exercise in the world greatly reduced, cut by approximately 1/3, perhaps to better fit reality and form a kind of liberalism less preoccupied with itself.
Before that, in Scorpio, sexual indulgence was cut. Overall, the free societies remained emancipated, but with specific imitations imposed by the threat of a deadly venereal disease - reattachment to monogamy, use of condoms. This created a new pattern of behavior, but did not radically undermine the erotic culture: Pornography, sex toys and a growing tolerance for LGBT community members remained.
The Significance of Next
The apparent purpose of Pluto can also be deduced from the upcoming sign in the sense that Pluto may reconnect the world with the values and ideas embodied by the transit sign, but points toward the next sign in the Zodiac.
When applying this perspective it becomes apparent that the purpose of limiting the values of the sign visited serves the purpose of releasing the potentials of the next sign.
For instance, the relative tightening of sexual behavior in Scorpio facilitated a more dignified hedonism, which allows sublimation into complex ideas, philosophical exchanges and universal ideals, such as they are embodied in Saggitarius (Chiron, the centaur and archer who was a mentor to the otherwise crude and inhospitable centaurs, and paid a high price for helping out Hercules).
The great conflict of the Pluto in Saggittarius Era was, to a large extent, a battle of ideas. The battle with terrorism did and still does display actual destructive power, but in the larger picture it is mostly symbolic, and even if death and mayhem and torture are, of course, very tangible to those afflicted, the battles of the current age can be said to be highly symbolically charged and largely take place for the purpose of statement and public effect.
The limitation to the ideology of freedom, to liberalism, may be required in order to release the ideal potential of Capricorn. Astrologers often talk about positive and negative aspects, also of the individual signs of the Zodiac - a lighter and a darker force. When reviewing the Pluto transits the following sign appears to be represented by its lighter, most positive aspects, and for Capricorn it is responsibility, accountability and good governance.
In the current Plutonic Era the next sign is Aquarius, which is the area or aspect most difficult for most Capricorns to assess or access, unless their natal chart contains a planet in this sign. The same rule goes for any other sun sign.
Therein lies the current challenge, because Aquarius deals with science, progress and social order. Authorities will be capped in this era, but not completely as it may be the desire of many an anarchist - only according to the 2/3 rule.
Like in the Chinese anecdote the highest flowers must lose their heads, because that is the only way to pave the way for the Aquarian ideals of equality and sustainability: To let it rain equally on the good and the bad for the purpose of general development, the very job description of the somewhat detached Aquarian rainmaker.
Conclusion
It is relatively safe to conclude that the resurfacing of strong nationalism and racialism we have witnessed over the past three decades will culminate in this Plutonic season, and it is a trend so powerful it is likely to become mainstreamed with new interest in finding the roots, connecting or reconnecting to cultural backgrounds, and backwards time travelling through birth records.
This may not mean increased racism as such, just a tendency to gang up in more or less tribalist subcultures within an overarching multi-cultural paradigm.
Generally speaking sentimentalist values are favored over rationalist or Calvinist ideas. Emotion, empathy and close relationships, the role of siblings and the study of family in general, is favored.
It will be very difficult to be the ambitious loner in this season. Investment in education may be reduced or ultimately not pay out, as more are educating themselves to unemployment. Dictators tumble or lose terrain, and that includes the one party system in China and, perhaps even the monolithich two party system in USA.
The greater the ammassment of wealth, the more rigid the structure, the more self-serving the agenda and the steeper the pyramid of power, the more devastating the effect of Pluto will be in this period.
Just as the previous Plutonic Era hit the people who expressed their freedom most indiscriminately, or enjoyed it the most savagely, and before that the people who were most sexually promiscuous, this Plutonic Era will lash out at the most ambitious, particularly if they travel with bodies in their luggage, or if they act nefariously for selfish gain.
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