James Lynn Page's Blog

 

Here is your Monthly Horoscope for January 2024 by our guest blogger, Andy. Andy is a friendly writer from the Wisdom Tavern website. His approach toward astrology is unique as he believes that the power of fate is based on your choices, not the planets. If you have any questions regarding the spiritual art of astrology, please visit his website.

If you want to read more about what the Lunar Highs and Lows really mean then click here.   And why not check out this post, all about what your moon sign really means. Plus, don’t forget to download my free eBook ‘ You and Your Birth Chart’ . (Please note that current consultation prices can be found here .)

Lastly, January’s New Moon is in Capricorn (on the 11th) and the Full Moon is in Leo (on the 25th)

 

Aries (March 21 – April 19)

Dear Aries, this January is going to be an important month for your spiritual growth and development. With ambitious Mars as your ruling planet, you usually charge ahead with confidence. But now it’s time to slow down, go within, and do some inner work.

The new year energies are ideal for new beginnings and self-inquiry. Ask yourself some deep questions – what is your true purpose in life? What values and principles guide you? How can you express your highest self? Spend time alone in nature or meditation to hear your inner wisdom and gain clarity.

Be open to new ways of thinking, believing and perceiving reality. Read up on spiritual traditions and mystical texts from around the world. Immerse yourself in the teachings that resonate with you. But maintain your Aries pioneer spirit – take what serves you and leave the rest.

Don’t be afraid to walk your own spiritual path. With your courage and fiery passion, you can blaze new trails this January. Share your discoveries and inspire others with your infectious optimism and zeal for growth.

LUNAR HIGHS: 16th-17th

LUNAR LOWS: 3rd-5th

 

Taurus (April 20 – May 20)

My steady Taurus friend, the first month is perfect for cultivating your spiritual roots and foundation. Your ruling planet Venus fills you with patience, appreciation and love of beauty. Use these qualities to create a regular spiritual practice.

Make time each day for activities that nourish your soul – be it meditation, yoga, journaling, or spending time in nature. Tend to your practice with care and consistency. Just like your gardener’s touch helps plants bloom, your daily spiritual routines will bloom your soul.

Reflect on what makes you feel most grounded, stable and secure. Perhaps it’s being surrounded by family, enjoying home-cooked meals, working with your hands – incorporate these into your spirituality.

Sensory experiences that you find soothing – lighting candles, playing healing music, burning incense – can also deepen your spiritual connection. Use your earthy Taurus strengths to build a solid spiritual base this month.

LUNAR HIGHS: 18th-20th

LUNAR LOWS: 6th-7th

 

Gemini (May 21 – June 20)

Dearest curious Gemini, this January is an enchanting time to explore and connect with your rich inner landscape. With planet Mercury as your guide, you have a youthful spirit of learning and communication. Take this energy inward to understand your spiritual core.

Spend time journaling – write letters to your past and future self. Draw or paint your thoughts and feelings. unleash the investigator within and study spiritual philosophies from around the world.

Have heart-to-hearts with friends about spirituality. Seek mentors who can guide you on the path. With your understanding and empathy, you can be a sounding board for others too. Share, listen and learn.

Follow your capricious whims wherever they take you. Be playful and open-minded. There are endless mystical adventures awaiting you this month!

LUNAR HIGHS: 21st-22nd

LUNAR LOWS: 8th-9th

 

Cancer (June 21 – July 22)

Dear nurturing Cancer, this January, retreat into your crab shell and commune with your innermost self. With the moon as your celestial ruler, you intuitively understand the ebb and flow of life. But now, withdraw from the outer tide and become an inner explorer.

In stillness and solitude, allow your spiritual antennas to attune. Let yourself be receptive to mystical insights, synchronistic signs from the universe and whispers from your soul. Keep a dream journal and meditate on the symbolism within.

Your spirit is nourished through connection – with family, home, and memories. Sit with old photo albums, cook favorite recipes, visit a childhood haunt. These cancer comforts will reveal your spiritual roots.

This month, your heart is calling you inwards, homewards, soulwards. Answer by creating spaces for self-love, nostalgia and inner work.

LUNAR HIGHS: 23rd-24th

LUNAR LOWS: 10th-11th

 

Leo (July 23-August 22)

My radiant Leo, turn your star-power inwards this January for some heart-centered spiritual work. Your ruling sun fills you with shining confidence and creativity. Channel this expressive energy into spiritual practices.

Host a New Year ritual with friends – light candles, set intentions, share blessings and dreams. Perform your own poetry or music, and encourage others’ talents too. Uplift each other’s spirits.

Spend time expressing yourself creatively – paint, write, dance like nobody’s watching. Let your inner child come out and play. Make vision boards or art journals to access your intuitive wisdom.

Dramatic Leo, view life itself as a stage this month. Stay open as a beginner, remain curious for new insights. You are the protagonist in your spiritual adventure. Put on an inspired performance!

LUNAR HIGHS: 25th-27th

LUNAR LOWS: 12th-13th

 

Virgo (August 23-September 22)

Dearest Virgo, this January guides you to mindfully tend to your spiritual garden. Ruled by earth goddess Ceres, you have a green thumb for nurturing growth. Turn your attentive care towards your inner landscapes now.

Organize your spiritual life like you would a well-run greenhouse. Make schedules, lists and routines that water your soul. But leave room for spontaneity too – nothing thrives in overly controlled conditions.

Clean and clear your physical and mental space. Remove clutter, process thoughts through writing. Prepare the fertile soil for spiritual seeds to root.

Pay attention to areas that need pruning or extra feeding. Are your relationships supportive? Do activities fulfill you? Weed out and make space for growth. With patience and devotion, your garden will bear abundant fruit.

LUNAR HIGHS: 1st-2nd; 28th-29th

LUNAR LOWS: 14th-15th

 

Libra (September 23 – October 22)

Dear harmonizing Libra, this January guides you to bring more balance to your spiritual life. Ruled by equanimity-seeking Venus, you strive for symmetry and fairness. Now, create equilibrium between outer-world activity and inner-world stillness.

Be mindful of busyness and disruptive forces. Protect spaces for quiet meditation, soothing music and long baths. Take refuge in beauty – visit an art gallery, get lost in poetry, spend time in nature.

You are a natural peacemaker, and that begins inside. When your inner judge arises, show compassion instead. When you feel imbalanced, don’t judge – simply rest and reset. By cultivating inner calm, you will spread peace.

This month, focus on finding your spiritual center. Light your inner flame of serenity through regular practice. All will be well, dear Libra.

LUNAR HIGHS: 3rd-5th

LUNAR LOWS: 16th-17th

 

Scorpio (October 23 – November 21)

My mystical Scorpio, this January guides you into your deep spiritual waters. With Pluto as your guide, you are not afraid to plunge into shadowy terrain and discover hidden truths. Now is the time for fearless inner work.

As a mystical prophet, your soul longs to uncover mysteries and secrets within. Ask penetrating questions, turn inward for self-discovery through meditation and journaling. Reflect on dreams, symbols, and synchronicities – decipher their messages.

Explore your emotional cellar – what rots in the darkness? Bring it to light and compost into renewal. With your brave heart, you can face any inner demon and watch it transform before your eyes.

Passionate Scorpio, embrace your spiritual complexity this month. You contain multitudes, and vast inner realms await your scythe. Cut away false layers, reveal your authentic self.

LUNAR HIGHS: 6th-7th

LUNAR LOWS: 18th-20th

 

Sagittarius (November 22 – December 21)

My adventurous Sagittarius, this January illuminates your spiritual voyage. You love exploring new horizons with Jupiter as your cheerful guide. Now, traverse inner landscapes and cross frontiers of consciousness.

Feed your restless spirit through study, conversation, and opening your mind. Take a workshop on an intriguing spiritual topic. Connect with a guru or community that awakens you, and share your own unique wisdom too.

Plan spiritual pilgrimages near or far – a hike to an ancient site, a trip to a holy land, a walkthrough nature basking in gratitude. Make the mundane magical by viewing it with childlike awe.

Follow any curiosity that sparks your soul, especially ones that challenge your beliefs. With an open and optimistic heart, you will uncover boundless spiritual vistas this month.

LUNAR HIGHS: 8th-9th

LUNAR LOWS: 21st-22nd

 

Capricorn (December 22 – January 19)

Dear Capricorn, with your ruler Saturn being the planet of maturity and wisdom, this January guides you to build a rock-solid spiritual foundation. Commit fully, take responsibility and align your actions with your truest values.

Reflect on your life’s direction – does it resonate with your soul’s purpose? If not, make steady and pragmatic plans to get back on track. Patiently work towards far-sighted goals.

In climbing the mountain of life, don’t forget to enjoy the view. Take time to appreciate how far you have come. Find teachers and community who witness and support your continued growth.

Trust that the trials you have endured have made you strong and weathered. You have profound inner resources to draw from. Let spirituality help you find meaning in all of life’s seasons. This month, build your inner home with care.

LUNAR HIGHS: 10th-11th

LUNAR LOWS: 23rd-24th

 

Aquarius (January 20 – February 18)

My forward-looking Aquarius, this new year aligns powerfully with your community-oriented spirit. As the water bearer, you are guided to share your innovative spirituality and pour out wisdom for thirsty souls.

You intuitively understand that inner change leads to outer change. So focus within – reflect on your vision for more justice, equality and progress in the world. Align your beliefs and actions to create ripples.

Gather with spiritually-minded groups who are making a difference. Get involved with causes that resonate with your higher self. Share your brilliant ideas and catalyze change.

Spread an electric optimism this month, while remaining grounded in service. Heal divides by building bridges of understanding. Your lightning mind and electric heart can enlighten your community.

LUNAR HIGHS: 12th-13th

LUNAR LOWS: 25th-27th

 

Pisces (February 19 – March 20)

Dear mystical Pisces, this January illuminates your spiritual depths. Neptune, your dreaming ruler, unveils your magical inner realms. Create space for visions, creativity and healing this month.

Spend time floating, dreaming and playing like a child. Express yourself through music, poetry or dance. Let your intuitive heart channel mystical worlds. Keep a journal nearby to capture inspired insights.

Be gentle with yourself this month. Take warm baths, unwind to soft music, and treat yourself with kindness. Healing occurs when you feel safe enough to access tender parts of yourself.

Release and cleanse regularly – burn sage, meditate, swim, and breathe out stagnant energy. This will help you be a clear vessel for vision and inspiration.

Dear Pisces, trust in your sacred inner wisdom this month. Allow it to pour through you into our world.

LUNAR HIGHS: 14th-15th

 LUNAR LOWS: 28th-29th

This article is written in collaboration with Wisdom Tavern

 

We hope you found something useful in your Monthly Horoscope for January 2024 Why not check out what else is in the Astrology category.

 

The post Monthly Horoscope for January 2024 appeared first on astro.nu.

Can we ever truly explain the Philosopher’s Stone? Is it just a myth, some fantastic, legendary artefact beloved of the alchemists of history, or is it something real? Our story begins with the Caliph of Bagdad in AD 830, who was passing through the ancient Islamic city of Harran, Mesopotamia. Here, whilst being received by a devoted crowd, he spied a group of people clearly not Muslims as they were dressed so oddly. It turned out they were ‘Sabians’ (or resident of the Old Testament ‘Sheba’) and it was demanded of them they must be ‘people of a book’ (any holy text recognised by the Islamic authorities) otherwise they’d be punished as infidels. And so, they claimed their religion was derived from the spiritual teacher Hermes Trismegistus (or Hermes the ‘Thrice Greatest’) who had – moreover – written certain sacred books long ago. He is the tutelary deity of the Hermetic Art, or Alchemy, or the noble quest for the Philosopher’s Stone.

Nevertheless, some say the founder of Alchemy was really the Egyptian god Thoth. It was He who gave birth to writing, music, arithmetic and sculpture. His lost, though marvellous, work, The Book of Thoth, contains all the secrets of magic and the Operations of the Philosophers. Yet, the book contains only two pages – one with instructions on how to command nature; the other, with keys to the world of the dead. It is upon Thoth that the title of ‘Thrice Greatest’ was bestowed around the second century BC and when the Greeks rose to power they had another name for him, Hermes. (The epithet Thoth-Hermes is used by scholars as a synonym for Hermes Trismegistus.)

Those words on how to command Nature were said to be inscribed upon a large slab of emerald, discovered by Alexander the Great, in the bowels of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh. This was a precious object called the Tabula Smaragdina2 , the Emerald Tablet, whose central message is ‘as above, so below’ (the workings of heaven are mirrored by those on earth, or, the spiritual/timeless and the earthy/time-bound are two halves of the same principle.) Here is how it begins:

Tis true without error, certain & most true.

That which is below is like that which is above

& that which is above is like that which is below

to do the miracles of one only thing.

And as all things have been & arose from one by the mediation of one:

so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation.

The Sun is its father, the moon its mother,

the wind hath carried it in its belly, the earth is its nurse.

The father of all perfection in the whole world is here.

Its force or power is entire if it be converted into earth.1

The Tablet, however, mystifies with its references to some obscure ‘thing’ it somehow cannot completely disclose, said to be ‘the fortitude of all strength’. (The astute reader will realise that the allusiuon here is to the Philosopher’s Stone.)

Hermetic thought is a school of mystical philosophy whose chief body of work is the so-called Corpus Hermeticum. Written by anonymous authors in Egypt before the end of the third century AD, its seeds stretch back to both ancient Egypt and ancient Greece. On this latter, we have Plato (429-348 B.C.) and his ideas to thank, and the revival of his teachings that appeared a few hundred year later, Neo-Platonism. Essentially, Hermetic thought says that spiritual understanding, attunement and perfection can be achieved though communion with the One, Ultimate Reality. Essentially a ‘source’ of mystical knowledge, Perfection, Wisdom, Harmony and even magical ‘power’ awaits for any individual prepared to make the long, arduous journey to discover it. To discover the Philosopher’s Stone.

And if all of this sounds high-falutin and remote – not to mention impossible -more recent (easier to digest) ideas on Manifestation, Intention, Mindfulness and the clichéd Law of Attraction, stem from the exact same Hermetic source. The teachings by popular figures like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Norman Vincent Peale, Claude Bristol, Napoleon Hill, U.S. Andersen, Al Koran and latterly, Eckhart Tolle, Stuart Wilde, Joe Dispenza, Wayne Dyer (and various others) all owe their genesis to Hermetic thought.

Naturally, the same Hermetic or Alchemical ideas radiate through other spiritual and religious traditions, both ancient and modern, from Christianity to Cosmic Ordering, Taoism to Transcendental Meditation, Gnosticism to New Thought and through the world’s great myths and legends, fairy tales, classic fiction, pseudo-history and outright hoaxes. (The Holy Grail and it powers, for example, are synonymous with those alleged of the Philosopher’s Stone.) All in all, Hermeticism expounds what has been called the Perennial Philosophy, that which acknowledges life essentially as being rooted not in matter but Spirit. As Aldous Huxley put it:

The Perennial Philosophy teaches that it is desirable and indeed necessary to know the spiritual Ground of things, not only within the soul, but also outside in the world and, beyond world and soul, in its transcendent otherness ‘in heaven.’ 3

Which is to say that ‘God’ can be known and understood only because of our innate connection with Him. That is, we all contain a little of the divine spark and it is our task to realise and make contact with it. As the Corpus Hermeticum states, ‘God is not, as some suppose, beyond the reach of sense-and-thought.’ 4

The Philosopher’s Stone and Belief

One of the earliest and most influential Hermetic thinkers was Zosimos of Panopolis, the Greco-Egyptian Gnostic who flourished around AD 300. In fact, he is the author of the oldest known books on alchemical teachings. This he called “Cheirokmeta,” Greek for “things made by hand.” He wrote that:

‘There are two sciences and two wisdoms, that of the Egyptians and that of the Hebrews, Both originate in olden times. And it is not concerned with material and corruptible bodies; it operates, without submitting to strange influences, supported by prayer and divine grace.’5

Here is evidence enough that true Alchemy was never merely about turning base metal into physical Gold. (Alchemists were not literal miracle-workers.) No, in the typically obscure language of the Alchemist, we infer that we’re dealing with the workings of the individual soul, with spiritual laws and magic. For if we want changes to occur in our lives we must see that the spirit operates according to ‘prayer’ and ‘divine grace’, as Zosimos tells us. Obviously ‘divine grace’ is simply God granting your wish. However, there’s an ancient method for ‘persuading’ God to grant your wish, that is, by the kind of belief actually suggested by Jesus who proclaimed: ‘Therefore, I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.’6

Here is laid bare one of the key tenets in both Alchemy and Magic (and much of the modern buzz around Manifestation) – the As If Principle. The teaching says that, in order for Magic to work effectively, one must – simply put – believe that one is already in possession of that which one seeks. This is no modern New Age fad from the likes of Esther Hicks or Rhonda Byrne, but one of the timeless secrets of the Occult. Remember that Alchemy is a method of spiritual development where inner ‘powers’ are sought, powers that will transform the life of the Alchemist.

The anonymous 1625 work The Golden Tract, tells us that ‘if you know the beginning, the end will duly follow by the help of God’, and that we must, ‘cease to think of many things. Nature is satisfied with one thing, and he who does not know it is lost.’ Here, allusions are made to the Belief required of the aspirant, to avoid distraction from one’s path by even a shred of doubt. ‘One thing’ is an allusion to powerful belief, the firm image one must hold of the desired goal – a singular certainty, for to doubt is to conceive of more than one possible outcome, the ‘many things’ mentioned in the text. ‘Knowing the beginning’ is, again, being convinced of the outcome before it manifests. (Fans of self-help ‘positive thinking’ manuals will have heard all of this before.)

In addition, real Belief is not merely some mental abstraction, but an active part of us, and always invokes strong feelings. In Al Koran’s Bring Out the Magic In Your Mind (1964) the author simply says: that ‘you obtain your desire by feeling as if you had already got what you want now’. The late philosopher and teacher, the popular Dr. Wayne Dyer, provides the latterday equivalent:

The truth is that I have within me a very powerful knowing that when I place something into my imagination, it is already a fact for me. I just don’t seem to have the capacity to erase from my mind what it is that is already my reality … When I was told that nine out of ten doctoral students do not receive their degree because they cannot complete the vigorous requirements of writing a dissertation, I knew that this did not apply to me, because I was already a doctor in my imagination. I persistently acted as if my dream were a present fact. I’ve had this same kind of “thinking from the end” in every phase of my professional career. As a young boy I saw myself on television shows and vehemently held this inner picture in my imagination, ignoring a lot of naysayers! And these imaginings ultimately were taken from my mind, where they were real, to the material world, where my senses finally caught up and confirmed them as truths.7

In the Ordinal of Alchemy from 1477 (whose teasing sub-title was Believe – Me) we find more allusions to the As-If Principle. We read that, ‘the first cause of sorrow (among the adepts) is to see and realise that among the many who seek this Art only few ever find it, and that no one can attain this knowledge unless he be taught before he begins.’

Note the paradoxical line about how one can only ‘attain this (occult) knowledge’ by being taught before one begins. This is perhaps about as explicit as Alchemists of the period would permit themselves to be in revealing the Great Secret. The paradox is resolved when we realise that its author, Thomas Norton, was saying that the Art (the realisation of the wonderful Philosopher’s Stone with its marvellous powers) is dependent on ‘knowing’ – by which he means faith and belief, the engine of the As If Principle. Neverthless, we do in fact have a fuller revelation from Alchemy that connects the mysterious Stone with the power of Belief. Gerhard Dorn, the sixteenth century Belgian alchemist wrote that:

‘There is in natural things a certain truth which cannot be seen with the outward eye … and of this the Philosophers have had experience, and have ascertained that its virtue is such as to work miracles …As faith works miracles in man, so this power, the veritas efficaciae, [‘efficient truth’] brings them about in matter. This truth is the highest power and an impregnable fortress wherein the stone of the philosophers lies hid.’8

So there you have it. This is what the Alchemists were trying to conceal all along with their hopelessly florid, obscure meandering about the Philosopher’s Stone. The ‘stone that isn’t a stone’ (etc, etc,) is a spiritual property of the soul, the very power of Belief itself, which – as we know – can move mountains when exercised correctly. It’s just that not everyone believes in Belief. As the seventeenth century Sophic Hydrolith says, the Stone is familiar to everyone, ‘both young and old’ and though it is ‘despised by all’ it is ‘the most beautiful and the most precious thing upon earth, and has power to pull down kings and princes.’ For ‘if it be prepared in the right way, it is a pearl without price.’

And therein lies the rub. ‘Preparing it ‘in the right way’ requires strong intuitions and requires much arduous effort. It could even lead to possible financial or psychological ruin. And who wants to engage in years of toil and struggle for something they might not even find? Well … Sir Isaac Newton, for one, the alchemist who translated the Emerald Tablet quoted above. And we can be sure that he discovered the Philosopher’s Stone, too.

1. Isaac Newton (translator). “Keynes MS. 28”. The Chymistry of Isaac Newton. Ed. William R. Newman June 2010. Retrieved March 4, 2013 from url.dlib.indiana.edu

2. In fact, the Emerald Tablet is medieval in origin. Prized by Qabalists of that age, an Arabic version existed during the eighth century, found in the works of the alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan (721-815)

3. The Perennial Philosophy, Chatto & Windus, 1947.

4. On Thought and Sense, translated by G.R.S. Mead)

5. Concerning the true Book of Sophe, the Egyptian, and of the Divine Master of the Hebrews and the Sabaoth Powers.

6 Mark 11, verse 24

7. Wishes fulfilled : Mastering the Art of Manifesting / Wayne W. Dyer. Hay House 2012

8. From Speculative Philosophy, quoted in Psychology and Alchemy, C. G. Jung, Collected Works 12, RKP, 1953

Image: Cinnabar on Dolomite by JJ Harrison (Public Domain: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license)

The post The Great Secret Uncovered – The Philosopher’s Stone and the As If Principle appeared first on astro.nu.

Neptune in Pisces has been weaving its seductive spell since 2011. But what happens in the wider world as a result? What does it actually do? Well, on an individual natal chart, Neptune symbolises our innate need for boundlessness, that eternal reaching out to the Spirit so common to the human condition. The material world, for some of us, feels like a prison, and Neptune is that archetypal urge to be free: from the chains of matter, structure and mortal limits. It’s as if we unconsciously seek to return to the safety of the womb, a Paradise, an Eden that entails no struggle or earthy responsibility. We blend, we transcend, we rise above the world of forms (that keep us separate) and become One.

This longing to return to the source will, in some way, be familiar to those with Neptune strongly placed on their birth chart. Collectively, however, the urge for Oneness or the need to belong and identify with the whole takes a simpler form when we observe Neptune’s transits though a zodiac sign. In Mundane Astrology – astrology applied to the affairs of countries and the peoples that comprise it – Neptune can be seen to reflect (sign-wise) what humans are gravitating towards as a whole, or – if you prefer – a herd. These are, essentially, popular likes and dislikes in the prevailing culture. What is au courant. The typical channels of expression for this will be art, design, glamour, photography, music, television and cinema, fashion, advertising (i.e. the power of the image) and works of imaginative fiction (including the various claims of tabloid newspapers).

Historians and commentators have no idea why certain things come in and out of fashion at any one time in a society. Some are passing fads, some re-appear from years before, such as the kind of clothes, colours or hair styles that are now ‘in’. Or it might be the slogans we repeat, currently popular music, or what trendy, mainstream movies or books are the latest best sellers. There often seems no rhyme nor reason why one type of hairdo should suddenly fall out of favour, or why hemlines are a much different height from last year, or why men should now eschew beards and sideburns. For the astrologer, though, there is a clue in the transits of Neptune. Collective Feeling has settled on certain tastes and values and thus coloured the Zeitgeist – and this happens according to which sign Neptune currently occupies.

At present we see Neptune in Pisces and the seemingly limitless capacity for lies and deception among politicians (especially in the currrent UK government). Politics has always been associated with hypocrisy, cant and a certain elasticity with the truth. But – at one time – politicians in the UK seemed to have more of a conscience, compelled to fall on their sword and resign if they’d misbehaved or knowingly misled Parliament (as with the Profumo scandal in 1963, and various resignations during the Tory ‘sleaze’ years of John Major). It seems no such qualms trouble the MP’s of today. But let’s first look at how Neptune operated in other signs back in the day, and what actually happened …

NEPTUNE IN SAGITTARIUS (1970-1984) The Seventies have been called the decade that taste forgot and not without good reason. The late 1950’s – and then the 60’s – had seen the urgent eroticism of rock and roll (in artists like Little Richard, Elvis, James Brown, Jim Morrison and Mick Jagger) when Neptune was in Scorpio between 1955 and 1970. This sexy, dark and moody vibe in popular music was replaced by something androgynous, bi-sexual, sex-less or just plain shocking. The shackles of 1960’s ‘authenticity’ and taking oneself seriously were out by the next decade’s pop market, and we moved to the freedom of artifice, and the fun, gaudy, ‘inauthentic’ spirit of 70’s and early 80’s hits Thus, Glam Rock, Punk, New Romantics and experimental Synth Pop arrived with Neptune in Sagittarius. Clothes also looked newly garish or were hopelessly impractical: ‘hot pants’, stacked-heel shoes or boots; big, daft-looking ‘spoon’ collars; ‘mullets’; ‘bell bottoms’ and flares and -finally – ‘snorkel parkas’ whose wearers could barely see where they were going. All very colourful, clumsy, expansive and over-the-top – in other words, Sagittarian.

The seventies film industry has – unsurprisingly – been labelled a free-for-all, anything goes era, whose creators were becoming much more daring about what they could show (and get away with). Portrayals of cinematic sex and violence were increasing by the late 60’s, but what we saw in the 70’s was much more ‘permissive’. By the 1970’s, restraint was out; shock value and outrage were in, typical of Sagittarius, a sign which baulks against limitations. Hence ‘shockers’ like: Straw Dogs, The Exorcist, Last Tango in Paris, A Clockwork Orange, I Spit On Your Grave, The Devils, Texas Chain Saw Massacre (even Monty Python’s Life of Brian offended figureheads of the Christian Right, like the egregious Malcolm Muggeridge.) It was also the era of the ‘video nasty’, more Sagittarian-like unrestraint from the early eighties, but which arguably began with the outrageous Pink Flamingos in 1972 (featuring a scene in which drag queen Divine – in the words of critic Roger Ebert – ‘actually ingests that least appetizing residue of the canine.’)

On another tack, the prevailing 70’s-early 80’s fashion in movies and T.V. was the ‘blockbuster’ whose characters literally went out of this world (Sagittarius does love long distance travel). Hence sci-fi and outer space was wildly popular again, in programmes like UFO, Space 1999, Buck Rogers in the 23rd Century, and movies like Star Wars, ET, Close Encounters and Alien. The pop music industry (reliant as it is on glamour and illusion) is also quite clearly a Neptunian phenomenon, whilst Sagittarius’ ethos is ‘do it big’. And so, in 1976, the Who played a gig at Charlton FC which was rated at the time (by the Guinness Book of Records) as the loudest concert ever performed. Earlier in 1970, at the Isle of Wight music festival, the final performance was that of Jimi Hendrix (a sun Sagittarian) who set one of the first high attendance levels, as 600,000 followers showed up. More Sagittarian expansion, and ‘doing it big’.

Finally, there was liberation from the drudgery of the kitchen, hence fast, time-saving, ‘convenience food’. Nowadays we know better and (hopefully) insist on a proper, balanced diet. In the 70’s, the market was flooded with ‘instant’, quick-to-make or boil-in-the-bag junk meals that were supposedly about saving time, but were really about novelty value. (Sagittarius loves novelty, too.) For those who desire reconstituted noodles from a plastic pot whose nutritional value is equal to that of a Meccano set, this is instant, ‘fun food’ – again, very Sagittarian. In this era we could delude ourselves that the future had nearly arrived, as we awaited the invention of the jet-pack and highways in the sky. Meanwhile, we had the wonders of Pot Noodle, Cup-a-Soup, Cadbury’s Smash and Bisto Gravy Granules. There was even the powder one mixed with water and ‘cooked in the fridge’ that was meant to turn into ice cream but, rather, tasted like (according to some critics) ‘flavoured snow’: Chillo. (All of which achieved popularity in the 70’s.)

NEPTUNE IN CAPRICORN (1984-1998) 1984 was the year Neptune moved into Capricorn, the sign of the aspiring, self-reliant entrepreneur or business mogul. Comedian Harry Enfield perfectly summed up the worst of this era with his vulgar ‘Loadsamoney’ character, a parody of the Thatcherite capitalist ethos and the self-made ‘Essex man’ driving his flash car and showing us how easy it is to make a quick buck. In the same context, the slogan ‘Greed is Good’ came from the 1987 US movie Wall Street, whose rapacious financial trader Gordon Gekko was its chief character. The catchphrase originated in a speech made by Gekko when he proclaimed that, ‘Greed, for lack of a better word, is good,’ making the point that it ‘captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind.’

Of course, with Neptune in Capricorn blurring the boundaries between ambition and ‘survival of the fittest’ avarice; between competition and screw-your-enemies-self-gain (where sympathy for the loser is considered a weakness), the Gekko philosophy is just what we should expect. Thus it became fashionable to be ‘in business’ and worship the filthy lucre, to which end we had the prevalence (in the 80’s) of amoral corporate raiders and businessmen (for they were mostly men) famous for hostile takeovers. Besides Gordon Gekko (in Wall Street) the stereotypical corporate raider was embodied cinematically in Danny Devito’s ‘Larry the Liquidator’ in Other People’s Money (1990), and Richard Gere’s Edward Lewis in Pretty Woman (1990).

Then there was the phenomenon of the so-called ‘young urban professional’. Newsweek magazine, at one time, had appropriately declared 1984 to be ‘The Year of the Yuppie’ – the year Neptune moved into Capricorn. (I would also note that, inflating the Capricornian archetype, 1984 was also the year Jupiter entered the sign.) Thus, the spectacle of ‘power-dressing’, a kind of understated ‘business look’ that bespoke one’s executive status, right down to the prominent shoulder pads and mobile phone/filofax accessories. As Wikipedia notes, Margaret Thatcher was a pioneer in incorporating ‘the spirit of power suits’ where her personal style was, according to Vogue magazine, ‘appropriate for the role of Prime Minister. She was Britain’s first female icon to pioneer at the same time politics and fashion …’ (A perfect example of Neptune in Capricorn.)

Whilst we’re on the subject of fashion (in contrast to the 70’s) the shorter-haired, formal look became popular for men as Neptune entered Capricorn. Even in aged, denim-clad rock and rollers, long hair and unruly sideburns were mostly out. Plus, in the pop music world, a spate of band reunions took place in the 90’s – the older, well established groups ruled again, and the time- honoured and traditional became ‘hot’ once more. Even the Beatles ‘reformed’, as did the once anarchic and threatening Sex Pistols! Even bands who had solemnly delcared they would never get back together again did so. Real guitar bands also returned (after synth pop) and there was a throwback to former styles for their own sake, like the mid 90’s ‘Britpop’ phenomenon, consisting of those aping a 1960’s ‘retro’ sound: Blur, Oasis, Kula Shaker, Cast. Corporate sponsorship of rock gigs (a Capricornian idea, if ever there was one) became popular, making some bands millionaires. Retromania ruled!

Plus, after the flashy, ‘futuristic’ look of 1970’s interior design (Neptune in Sagittarius, with its chrome, formica and plastic) came a new trend for ‘authenticity’, sporting the natural, even ‘historic’, look made from real materials like iron, brass and oak. ‘Retro’and ‘reproduction’ were in, even to the point where pubs and homes were artificially aged to get those ‘original’ features back.

As the Guardian put it: ‘In the 1980s, decorative laminates were consigned to naffdom and banished from the home, along with all the plastic paraphernalia of the 1960s and 70s.’ Journalist Philip Norman (in his biography on Elton John) also sums up this era of 80’s fashion moving ‘retro’. With our Thatcherite values firmly in place in the UK, Norman writes that ‘the great buzzwords turned out to be “traditional”, “original” and “classic”. Pubs transformed themselves into semblances of Boer War gin palaces or Dickensian coffee rooms. Fortunes were made in the mass-production of bogus nineteenth-century goods, from ‘Victorian villager’ soap-on-a-rope to ‘Victorian country house’ chutney and mustard foot-soak. Such things had existed, of course, in the Sixties and Seventies, but were always recognised as pastiche. In the Eighties, they began to be believed … [even] Mrs Thatcher herself spoke of restoring ‘Victorian values’ …’§ To cap it all, English Heritage, the charity that manages over 400 historic houses and places began in 1983, just as Neptune was getting ready to move into Capricorn.

NEPTUNE IN AQUARIUS (1998-2011) The clothes fashions of the Noughties are often described as being a ‘global mash up’ (very Aquarian – the sign of the cosmopolitan, the international, the mixing of cultures). It is where ‘trends saw the fusion of previous vintage styles, global and ethnic clothing (e.g. boho).’ (Wikipedia) There was an observable shift from the more formal, even business-look of Neptune in Capricorn, whilst in the home we wanted less of the stiffly traditional.

There was also an acknowledgement of ‘green issues’ and concerns with the ‘environment’. The spirit of Aquarius is about what is ‘good’ for us collectively, which so often translates as a concern for the state of the planet itself, hence the rise of ‘eco concerns’ in the news. The Guardian wrote, ‘in the 90s, we were still learning what it meant to go green; in the noughties we started to put it into practice. TV’s Grand Designs, which launched in 1999, nurtured the concept of energy-saving ecohomes.’

In pop music however, with manifold genres spawning even more sub-genres by the late 90’s, it was getting hard to pinpoint which astrological themes were at work. What did stand out was the Girl Group phenomenon. All-female pop groups (whilst hardly unprecedented) were quite rare in the 70’s and 80’s, but by the late 90’s the Spice Girls had shown the way with so-called ‘girl-power’ (a meaningless marketing device, but a new idea that bespoke equality with the Boy Bands which preceded them – very Aquarian). The new girl groups seemed less like Svengali-creations of yore (e.g. The Supremes) but more independent, confident and ‘in your face’, and this spawned yet more girl groups like B*Witched, Atomic Kitten, Girls Aloud and Sugababes.

Elsewhere, the massive popularity of the world wide web – after the ‘dot-com’ boom and bust (1999–2001) and the availability of cheaper high speed connections – is the perfect manifestation of Neptune (trends) in Aquarius (the future – I.e. ‘digital’ technology – and the collective). Mundanely, Aquarius is about the global community and (lest we forget) this was also the original ideal behind the internet – a hi-tech invention for sharing information and resources. Soon, we saw the rise of social media which – Aquarian fashion – brought people together anywhere in the world, 24-7. Starting in 2003, MySpace became the biggest social networking site in the world, superseded by Facebook in 2004, after which we had YouTube (2005), Twitter (2006), and Instagram (2010). Anyone with an internet connection could join in. Instant democracy!

The genre of film documentary also received some new input as Neptune transited Aquarius – but what should we expect from a popularisation of ‘Aquarian’ themes? Well, matters like social justice, ecology (and the subject of global warming) and just about any issue that concerns societies and collectives, and what affects them. One very Aquarian issue is politics – the organisation of large collectives into something manageable (and, ideally, cohesive). Accordingly, the world of the film documentary had a new star in the noughties: Michael Moore, who’d gained an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature (in 2002) for Bowling for Columbine, which looked at US gun culture and the origins of the Columbine High School massacre. Two years later, frustrated with George W. Bush’s second election victory, Moore made Fahrenheit 9/11, about the neo-conservatives (and their policies) dominant in the White House. The film’s success and subsequent popularity was virtually unprecedented for a documentary, and by August 2012 (when Neptune had left Aquarius) it was the highest-grossing documentary of all time. Two more finger wagging films by Moore followed, and also entered the highest-grossing lists: Sicko (2006), and Capitalism: A Love Story (2009). (Of course, Moore was at it again with Fahrenheit 11/9, about the Donald Trump presidential victory in 2016.)

Elsewhere, there appeared other ‘Aquarian’ style documentaries, like Al Gore’s immensely popular An Inconvenient Truth (2006) which reminded us of the need for swift action in saving the planet, ‘raising international public awareness of global warming and reenergizing the environmental movement.’ (Wikipedia.) Again, this is a very ‘Aquarian’ theme, as it involves the very human causes for the damage and calls on humanity to take collective action. Whilst we were being lectured on ecology and US politics, other documentary film-makers got into the highest- grossing lists, whether sending up the absurdities of organised religion (Religulous, from 2008) or warning of the dangers to our health posed by McDonald’s plc (Super Size Me, 2004).

NEPTUNE IN PISCES (2011/12 to present) Neptune in Pisces began April 2011 and – post retrograde – recommenced February, 2012. There are parallels to when it was first discovered in 1846, when much of the zeitgeist was soaked in spiritual matters: Christian Science, New Thought, Spiritualism, Transcendentalism and Hypnotism were all strange new pursuits back then. (In the nineteenth century, Neptune in Pisces lasted from 1848 to 1861.) We’re witnessing another revolution just like this: the New Statesman (in 2013) showed that only 13% (!) in the UK agreed with the statement that ‘humans are purely material beings with no spiritual element.’ Meditation, yoga, tai chi and ‘green issues’ are no longer quack pursuits. With Neptune in Pisces, vegetarianism and veganism is also on the increase, and the spiritual seems more and more to infiltrate areas from which it was hitherto barred. For one, many scientists, yes, scientists, have adopted a more holistic or unashamedly spiritual approach to life – the names of Rupert Sheldrake, Bruce Lipton, Larry Dossey, John Hagelin and Amit Goswami may be familiar to you. You may not even have noticed this new openness to the sacred, but that is precisely how Neptune works – gently eroding barriers.

However, there is negative side to all of this – we’re also in a new anti-rational era, a phenomenon that has been branded the ‘post-truth’ age. So called ‘post-truth’ politics (identified as such in the decade following the noughties) sees discourse driven not simply by appeals to emotion – as all propaganda does and always will do – but by a hybrid of factors, an entire armoury of lies, distortions, bufoonery, nonsense, wild boasts, and outrageous exaggerations that defy normal expectations and wrongfoot those in search of the facts. The truth. Actually, real facts get in the way of post-truth discourse, and are conveniently ignored. Not only that, the sinister technique of ‘gaslighting’ is also used in order to sow the seeds of doubt and confusion, so that even robust logic and our sense of reality ends up being eroded. The ultimate goal is disorientation, and it has infected much in recent political life; according to Wikipedia:

‘as of 2018, political commentators have identified post-truth politics as ascendant in many nations, notably Australia, Brazil, China, India, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, among others … The phrase became widely used during the 2016 UK EU membership referendum to describe the Leave campaign … Faisal Islam, political editor for Sky News, said that Michael Gove used “post-fact politics” that were imported from the Trump campaign … Arron Banks, the founder of the unofficial Leave EU campaign, said that “facts don’t work … You’ve got to connect with people emotionally. It’s the Trump success.”’

As for Trump himself, his accusations about mainstream press being Fake News was little more than someone burying their head in the sand at the first sign of criticism (another hallmark of ‘post- truth’). Plus – as we saw – an entire movement of wilfully self-deluded Republicans fantasised that Trump had actually won the US election on November 3rd, 2020. Of course, we’ve always had political propaganda, but Trump’s single term in office began with a hint that this was to be no ordinary Presidency; rather, one based on Neptune in Pisces post-truth politics, where the truth is whatever you deem it to be. How else do we account for a White House that – when shown a photo proving 2017’s Presidential inauguration was badly attended – declared such incontrovertible evidence to be an ‘alternative fact’? This is the real ‘fake news’: conspiracy theories as official policy, self-serving fantasy preferred to reality and the unlovely spectacle of January 6th, 2021 when a violent, deluded crowd stormed the Capitol Building in Washington DC. Such are the fruits of Neptune in Pisces – ‘collective emotion’ running rampant, zero boundaries where anything goes. (The same post-truth phenomenon was, of course, at work in the UK during Boris Johnson’s ascendancy towards becoming Prime Minister. The result? Lies about Brexit and – when in office – ‘Partygate’).

In closing, the very idea of blurring or ‘transcending’ traditional boundaries is typically Neptunian. These days, the business of sexual gender is a hot topic, with the rise of Transgender (the ‘T’ in LGBT). This is identity beyond the usual gender binary, neither exclusively ‘male’ nor ‘female’. Hence, descriptions such as Non Binary, Genderfluid (very Neptune in Pisces!), Agender, Genderless, or Demigender. To some more literal minded people the whole business is not a little confusing, but there is now legal recognition of non-binary genders on the statute books. In November 2013 (when Neptune had entered Pisces) Germany was the first European country to recognise an ‘indeterminate’ sex on its birth certificates. Many others soon followed. Is this phenomenon another example of the ‘post-truth’ age?

Image: Garry Knight (Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication).

§. Norman, Philip, Elton, Hutchinson, 1991.

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A ‘goodbye to the old’ is underway when we see Pluto in Aquarius (March to June 2023, then from January 2024. Part one of this feature, can be found here, by the way). True to its nature, it will transform how we live, not necessarily in a subtle way. Ideally, as you will read on most internet blogs, this transit will be about the power of the collective, interconnectedness, networking, sharing and co-operatives, where everyone (potentially) has a say and benefits equally. These are the supposed themes for the coming years. However, the reality may be rather different, as we will see later on.

Aquarian triumphs always sound lovely and liberating — at first. But the water-bearer, as embodied by the overeager Aquarius Laura Dern on Enlightened, will pursue righteousness and revolution at all costs, unaware of the collateral damage. The French Revolution toppled a bloated monarchy, but its values of rigid nationalism now fail to integrate religious and ethnic differences. The Former Soviet Union is ruled by Aquarius, and in the rise and fall of communism we see how a vision for perfect equality can become an iron menace.

– David Odyssey1

The last time Pluto was in Aquarius social reform was in the air; the following quote is from Frank J. Klingberg’s essay, the Evolution of the Humanitarian Spirit in Eighteenth-Century England:

All the humanitarian currents and forces of the [eighteenth] century may be thought of as the struggle for the organization of a civilized social life, with the economist, the churchman, the reformer, the poet, the satirist, and the legislator each working in many related “causes” for the change of social conditions… The fact that the mood of England was changing, decade by decade, is seen in the voice of these important societies … The first of the revolutionary leaders [of this time] was Granville Sharp. His interests included activity against dueling, the press gang, prison abuse, Parliamentary corruption, war, drink, flogging, and unemployment.’2

Klingberg’s text above beautifully captures the spirit of the previous transit of Pluto through Aquarius (1777 to 1797) – the zeal for reform and the sincere attempts to improve the lot of ordinary people. There can be no better example, however, of this drastic Plutonian sweep through society (like a scythe through a wheat crop) than the concurrent Revolution occurring in France from 1789-1799. As Wikipedia puts it: ‘Many of its ideas are considered fundamental principles of liberal democracy, while phrases like liberté, égalité, fraternité reappeared in other revolts …. and inspired campaigns for the abolition of slavery and universal suffrage.’3

Liberté, égalité, fraternité (liberty, equality and fraternity) can be seen as a direct result of the discovery of revolutionary-minded Uranus, even though the equality and fraternity parts are not – in themselves – Uranian principles (Uranus’ function is to inspire Man and Woman, infuse them with Divine Spirit and to tear down the old oppressive order – ‘brotherhood’ doesn’t quite enter the picture. Instead, what we saw in revolutionary France in the late eighteenth century was Pluto in Aquarius’s urge towards a fairer, more equal society.)

And if any one individual personified the zeitgeist it had to be Maximilien Robespierre (1758 –1794) the French lawyer who was ‘one of the best-known, influential and controversial figures of the French Revolution. He campaigned for universal manhood suffrage and the abolition of both clerical celibacy and [like William Wilberforce in the UK] the Atlantic slave trade [becoming] an outspoken advocate for male citizens without a political voice … To some, Robespierre was the Revolution’s principal ideologist and embodied the country’s first democratic experience.’4

This is one of the more noble effects of Pluto in Aquarius, but there is another side to it …

THE DARK SIDE

We know that, as humans, individually or collectively, we can misuse planetary energies. One way of misusing Pluto is to try and hang on to the old ways to retain one’s power base. This is what certain long standing institutions will be doing with Pluto in Aquarius, especially governments and businesses (who often have vested interests in things remaining as they are). As the astrologer Paula Lustemberg put it: ‘Pluto in Aquarius describes the removal of what stands in the way of moving towards a future with greater social equality. How this is done depends very much on the collective reality of the moment.’5 If Pluto in Capricorn exposed corruption in business and politics with authoritarian, self-serving leaders (yet simultaneously empowering them), Pluto in Aquarius will focus less on the individual leaders than it does groups. Instead of the powers of the megalomaniacs it will be about the institutions and corporations themselves – and the power they wield may not all be positive.

As any astrologer knows, Pluto can bring a ‘heavy’ and authoritative hand to a situation, one of its principal themes is power, after all. In Aquarius, we see the blind quest and zeal to ‘improve’ things for the supposed ‘good of all’, the ‘good of the community’. If Aquarius is about human rights, for example, we may even see situations where citizens are prosecuted for violating them in only mild ways. For example, some aspects of so called political correctness – originally only about consideration towards minorities – could turn into actual legal proscriptions, and what we say to each other with mild insults could not only be against the law but may entail jail time for ‘offenders’. This sounds like one of those wild ‘it couldn’t happen here’ scenarios – but history shows that humankind is often complacent about things like this. (For much of the 1930’s, no one thought there could be another world War.)

And so Pluto in Aquarius may be about power and manipulation disguised as ‘trying to do the right thing’. I quote Paula Lustemberg once more: ‘Pluto also speaks of control and manipulation, especially when experienced from the lowest vibrations. And in Aquarius, we can talk about control and manipulation through the mind, through ideas … Be that as it may, in the past this transit has brought great progress in society. We see a new era coming where “knowledge” will be the star …’6

And yet, ‘knowledge’ already is the star, as witnessed in the pre-eminence of Science, and its supposed authority – something we often turn to as a reference point for the ‘bigger issues’.

This is mainly because Religion (in the West) has lost most of its power to influence modern societies. The prevailing Paradigm, is determined now by science, not organised religion. And yet science is often treated, as if it were a religion. Certainly, it often constitutes a dogma which tries to lay down exactly what we should believe about the Universe. In Liz Greene’s assessment of the coming Age of Aquarius (whose seeds we now see germinating) she says that with its ‘group consciousness’ this sign will ‘wipe out the individual if it is allowed to run rampant’. That is, when the group mind, the consensus, is strong enough, individual differences of opinion are ignored, stamped out even. When there is enough peer pressure, one’s feels forced to agree and join in with what the group wants. This is how Aquarius gets its own way – and Science (through sheer numbers) has the upper hand.

Therefore, there’s a big danger that the dogma of Science – because it is has power through the Collective and the support of the Majority – will become even more like a tool with which to shut people up, especially those with ‘irrational’ spiritual beliefs or those who would take up arms against it, that is, other scientists who argue against the (often unfounded) dogmas. We already see some of this with the phenomenon of Intelligent Design, whose advocates have pointed out the failings of modern neo-Darwinism (gene theory plus evolution tells us all we need to know about Life). Scientists who argue for Intelligent Design are not only insulted by the orthodox scientific community (usually ridiculed as silly, Christian creationists) but livelihoods can be lost (in the US) if they dare even to mention ID to their students.

So, because Science is a collective power, dissenting voices in the minority will be even more difficult to hear. Individual dissenters are to be shunned. Then again, does Science always move in the direction of what’s good for everyone? Take Artificial Intelligence, that supposed miracle of modern science where machines can do the work humans used to do (whose advocates seem to forget certain obvious facts like: a) these machines put people out of work; and b) machines have a tendency to go wrong.) The Rise of AI is based on the erroneous idea that Human Consciousness is somehow synonymous with the intelligence of a computer program. In the coming era, there may be yet more extreme ideas for how AI robots can be put to use, and since Pluto is involved they will likely border on the vaguely sinister, too!

This Power of the Collective will also see some controversial manifestations in politics, in institutions like the EU, or the UN, when Pluto moves through Aquarius. Ideally, Pluto in Aquarius will shift the emphasis to shared power, shared capitalism and power structures that are more inclusive. (At the very least it should mean individual demagogues can no longer get away with things – that their powers are checked by other forces.) But it is also going to create many more tensions when sovereign countries (the ‘individual’) want to exert certain powers against the wishes of whatever collective or union they belong to.

BUSINESS, THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE FUTURE

As we saw in part one of this article, humanitarians like William Wilberforce (who campaigned in the eighteenth century against slavery) were ultimately driven by Christianity. That ‘do-good’ zeal will still be there with the next Pluto-Aquarius transit, but we will look towards ‘science’ to usher in and deliver the new changes. The obvious difference between now and Wilberforce’s time is one of new technology. We live (some of) our lives online, connected to part of a huge network, whose basic idea is about lateral power – each ‘node’ having some individual autonomy. The point is that it’s decentralised – there is essentially no top-down hierarchy.

Networks are obviously another Aquarian theme (look at the massive rise of popular social media sites, for example, when fashion-conscious Neptune went through Aquarius). The Internet is is also changing the way entrepreneurs and ordinary people do business, in short, it has levelled the playing field, bringing people together (customers and sellers) instantly, without any so called middlemen or ‘mark up’ costs. In Jeremy Rifkin’s The Third Industrial Revolution the author has much to say about a future based more on the (Aquarian) principle of collaboration and sharing, in particular where Green issues are concerned:

‘The emerging Third Industrial Revolution … is organized around distributed renewable energies that are found everywhere and are, for the most part, free—sun, wind, hydro, geothermal heat, biomass, and ocean waves and tides. These dispersed energies will be collected at millions of local sites and then bundled and shared with others over intelligent power networks to achieve optimum energy levels and maintain a high-performing, sustainable economy. The distributed nature of renewable energies necessitates collaborative rather than hierarchical command and control mechanisms … This new lateral energy regime establishes the organizational model for the countless economic activities that multiply from it. A more distributed and collaborative industrial revolution, in turn, invariably leads to a more distributed sharing of the wealth generated.’7

He goes on to state that, in a network, ‘self-interest is subsumed by shared interest. Proprietary information is eclipsed by a new emphasis on openness and collective trust. The new focus on transparency over secrecy is based on the premise that adding value to the network doesn’t depreciate one’s own stock but, rather, appreciates everyone’s holdings as equal nodes in a common endeavor.’8 There are a number of Aquarian themes here that Rifkin (who I presume is not an astrologer) has picked up on – the theme of collective trust, collaboration and shared interest – which all adds up to ‘together is better’. And Rifkin seems certain that the new spirit of ‘shared energy’ resources will become a new economic model for the future. Let’s hope so.

Pluto is, of course, a transpersonal planet, concerned ultimately with the fate of generations rather than individuals. (Even with a natal Pluto on an angle, say, that person – we are told – is meant to be a mere vessel for the planet’s universal energy.) If Pluto in Aquarius can teach us anything it is that we’re all entirely dependent on Mother Nature (who, when she wears her Plutonian face can, nevertheless, seem quite cruel). In the old paradigm Nature was something to be conquered; in the new one, we must build a relationship with it. For example, the Covid virus (whose appearance in the West coincided with the Saturn-Pluto conjunction of January 2020) clearly exposed how we are destroying the planet. Satellite photos made soon after its first stages (when we were mostly in full lockdown) showed a decline in harmful greenhouse gases, and wildlife started to reappear where it had been absent. (There were even fish in Venice’s waterways.) In short, when we weren’t polluting it, the Earth began to heal. (The Covid virus even showed our innate capacity for coming together, for unselfish action.)

It should go without saying that new environmental initiatives will be near the top of any good government’s ‘to do’ list with Pluto in Aquarius – for this is ultimately about humanity itself. As Jeremy Rifkin suggests, Western governments and technology firms will work together better in the future – and better here means ‘greener’. Pluto in Aquarius (along with spiritually inclined Neptune in Pisces) will make it abundantly clear that we need to step back a little and think over our relationship with the planet. Again, we are all connected and inter-dependent; not only will Pluto in Aquarius demonstrate this, dramatically if necessary, we’ll have to adopt the slogan as a modus operandi during the so-called Third ‘Industrial Revolution’.

Back in 1793, not long after the first industrial revolution, Robespierre even urged the formation of a sans-culotte army to enforce revolutionary laws. As Wikipedia explains: ‘The sans-culottes were the common people of the lower classes in late 18th-century France’, and they became the radical, militant end of the French Revolution, angry at their poor quality of life. Again, this is Pluto in Aquarius to a T – a very real ‘power of the people’. And if you haven’t spotted it yet, they look like a forerunner of the Gilets-Jaunes, the yellow-vest protestors in modern France who began calling for economic justice and institutional political reforms. The protests in France began on 17 November 2018, incidentally, ten days after transiting Uranus had conjoined natal Saturn on France’s 1792 chart (suggesting massive tensions ready to explode), and the same month that the progressed moon (the people) squared progressed Pluto (power).

With Pluto in Aquarius, I believe we’re going to see many more of these kinds of protests from ordinary people, even new movements (witness Extinction Rebellion) and that they’re going to have some real political power to influence the so-called Establishment. This we’ll likely see, as well, in the power of workers’ unions across the Western world. The last Pluto transit brought about the first unions and the Labor movement in the US, in keeping with the egalitarian spirit of Aquarius. Strikes, therefore, may become much more of a serious issue than of late as we move into 2024. So, in closing, to use an old slogan from another old radical: Power to the People!

1. https://www.nylon.com/life/pluto-in-a...

2. The Evolution of the Humanitarian Spirit in Eighteenth-Century England, Frank J. Klingberg,

University of Pennsylvania Press, 1942.

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_...

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximil...

5. https://paulalustemberg.com/en/pluto-...

6. Ibid.

7. The Third Industrial Revolution, Jeremy Rifkin, Griffin, 2013.

8. Ibid.

 

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The Best Alternate Reality Movies 3: Franklyn (2008, dir: Gerald McMorrow) 9/10

Franklyn, I’ll confess, is my all time favourite ‘alternate reality’ film, an underrated, extravagant gem from first time director McMorrow, described on Wikipedia as a ‘science fantasy’. I must disagree with the ‘science’ part, though. This stunning interior journey (the name ‘Franklyn’  is never explained) is a portrait of despair, alienation and broken hearts, and how one copes with these things (i.e. by spinning personal fantasies). Its plot is tortuously complex, multi-layered and almost indescribable. But I will try!

Franklyn’s main character, Emilia, is played by Eva Green, a disaffected film student who creates a set of video ‘suicides’ – all in the name of art, you understand. (Before performing these risky acts of self-harm she dials the emergency services, who may or may not succeed in rescuing her.) Overlapping Emilia’s story is that of Jonathan Preest (Ryan Phillippe), a masked ‘hero’ seeking out a child molester among the dog-eat-dog, urban deprivation of Meanwhile City – all weird religions, and steam-punk fashion. But ‘Preest’, we can see, is a fantasy figure, witnessed among the City’s other characters (straight out of Sin City or V for Vendetta). Yet we also meet them as real people in our own 3D world. Or do we?

For example, Brit actor Bernard Hill is an official at the Ministry in Meanwhile City whereas in the real world he’s Peter Esser, a bereft church warden seeking his errant son, David. Also, there’s the ever watchable Art Malik who plays Tarrant, the head of the Ministry; in ‘real life’ he’s a military psychiatrist whom Esser visits (David – a veteran of the Iraq war – being the ‘real world’ version of Preest). Got that?

If this isn’t complicated enough, there’s also Milo (Sam Riley) whose recent engagement has been called off, and his flame-haired, childhood friend ‘Sally’, who he invented to cope with the loss of his father. (‘Sally’ is also played by Eva Green, which confuses things – nothing new there, then.) Emilia is also traumatised by some unnamed abuse (by her father). These ‘real life’ parts of the film anchor it with an emotional weight that balances out the obvious fictional sequences – like the dark, graphic-novel of Meanwhile City. Or do they?

So far, so unclear, but we can see that what unites David/Preest, Esser, Milo and Emilia is that they’ve all lost something – a sister, a son, a fiancee and, in Emilia’s case, childhood innocence. We watch, baffled, for the first hour, aware that they’re all related in some meaningful way – but how? Will all these strands converge at the end, and reveal the answer? What we need to know is: from whose point of view are we seeing this?

Warning – spoilers appear from here! At the climax, Milo and ‘Sally’ sit in a restaurant on a rain-soaked night in urban London; another patron is there too – Peter Esser (David’s father). Across the road is Emilia’s gloomy flat, and David – equipped with rifle – has forced his way in, intending to shoot his father through an open window. More clues follow: David spies Emilia’s drawings, which resemble the Ministry in Meanwhile City. At one point, Sally looks at Milo and asks: ‘Can’t you feel it? It’s nearly time.’ Across the road, Emilia has threatened to blow herself and David up. This is the point where her suicide fantasies become real. It’s nearly time. Before she exits, tossing a zippo lighter into the gas-filled room, the flat becomes an image from Meanwhile City – complete with Jonathan Preest. (There’s a clue here if you’ve been paying attention!)

The flat explodes and erupts in flames with David still in it, as Emilia runs into the street below. There she finds Milo, wet and injured from gunshot whilst the ambulance has mysteriously vanished. ‘You’re hurt,’ Emilia says to Milo. The camera pans upwards and we see lingering shots of Gothic spires and dingy rooftops and realise we’ve seen them before – we’re in Meanwhile City, after all. We’re seeing things – have been seeing things – from Emilia’s point of view.

You have to look hard for these clues, though. Franklyn is a film that doesn’t yield its mysteries easily, which is as much down to the direction as it is the script – both ably handled by McMorrow. Like the best personal relationships, Franklyn demands your time, attention and understanding. (And rewards them, too.) It divides the critics into two camps – one which likes it for its refusal to signpost inner meanings; the other, which dismisses it as phoney ‘art house pretension’. But this is because, like any genuine mystery, you either get or you don’t. It’s said that for those who believe in God, no rational explanation is necessary; for those who don’t, none is even possible. I prefer to think that Franklyn is a just little like that!

Other reviews in this series so far: Twelve Monkeys, Cypher

Images: Creative Commons license (Public Domain) courtesy of Wikimedia.

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A new era is dawning – we will see Pluto in Aquarius from March 2023 (until early June, after which it retrogrades back in to Capricorn). This is when we’ll get an inkling of the kinds of changes to come (watch the news for Pluto in Aquarius themes). It then occupies Aquarius from Jan. 2024 (with another retrogradation Sept. to Nov. of that year). What will this signify for us? How will it actually impact our lives? I have been researching this issue for the past two years and the changes are going to be huge.

As astrologers are keenly aware, this planet presides over death, mortality and destruction. He is the power of Change that occurs with time, that which transforms the material world, and his underlying intention is regeneration, rebirth and resurrection. Following the breakdown and disintegration of any situation (whether abstract or material) there is the possibility of new life and restoration. We can see this happen in Nature throughout the seasonal cycle, as regenerative powers do their thing. With Pluto in Mundane Astrology, however – and as we’ll see later – things are not necessarily that simple.

Aquarius is the sign of brotherhood par excellence and embodies the power of the collective and humanity itself. In the zodiac cycle, the soul has passed through the personal and social ambitions of Capricorn to arrive at humanity itself – Life and Reality perceived through the group ego; ‘us’ and ‘we’, rather than ‘me and mine’. Aquarius isn’t just the dignity of the socialised individual (also an Aquarian concern) but the dignity of the human race itself, or what it ultimately means to be a Man or Woman. In Mundane Astrology, Aquarian themes are triggered when there is concern with human rights and humanitarianism, co-operation and co-operatives, socialism and society at large. It’s the old Mr Spock principle: ‘the needs of the Many outweigh the needs of the One’. (For Leo, of course – the opposite sign to Aquarius – it is the other way around.)

The Mundane Pluto

As mentioned, what Pluto seeks at an archetypal level is the breakdown and resurrection of outdated structures. On a mundane chart – often the hardest to make any reliable forecasts for – we need to look at the underlying themes connected to the planet and sign, so let’s first take a look at Pluto transits through previous signs and the main themes at work.

PLUTO IN VIRGO (1958-1970)

Pluto’s entry into Virgo coincided with a decimation of the workforce in the manufacturing sector. For one, in the UK, employment in manufacturing began a swift decline (c. 1966) from which it never recovered. One threat to the labour market is automation – machines taking the place of people. The term originated with the Ford Motor Company in 1948 but it wasn’t until 1961 that actual robots were introduced – on a General Motors assembly line – into the workplace. This ties in exactly with Pluto’s transit through Virgo (along with, it must be said, Uranus). Later developments were the invention of industrial computers (the PLC’s, or ‘programmable logic controllers’) in 1968 and the appearance of robotic “Stanford Arm” in 1969. From this period onwards, robots on assembly lines, and far less human workers, would proliferate.

PLUTO IN LIBRA (1971-1984)

This phase in human history saw a re-evaluation of personal relationships and gender politics. The term ‘permissive society’ had entered the parlance, and Pluto in Libra provided us with a threat to the institution of matrimony. Marriage break-ups in the West were on the increase in the early 1970’s; divorce rates had soared into six figures by 1972 in the UK, for example. In the US, divorces peaked in the 1970’s and early 1980’s (sitting nicely in the Pluto-Libra timeline). As the New York Times pointed out, this ‘occurred at the same time as a new feminist movement, which caused social and economic upheaval.’ (Germaine Greer’s polemical and angry, The Female Eunuch had been published in 1970.) Instead of marriage, we had ‘living in sin’ (Pluto quite likes sin) as a practical alternative to matrimony when older values underwent serious change. We also experienced the rise of Women’s Rights as a philosophy and the striving for gender equality (‘equality’ being a Libran keyword).

PLUTO IN SCORPIO (1984-1996))

When Pluto moved into Scorpio the world held its breath – nuclear conflagration seemed like a real possibility due to unresolved tensions between superpowers America and Russia. (Ronald Reagan was quoted as saying ‘we might be the generation that sees Armageddon’ and this type of scaremongering was filtered through popular culture (like TV’s Whoops Apocalypse!, and films such as War Games, When the Wind Blows, Threads, and The Day After). There were other Scorpio themes: practitioners of the occult were under threat as a wave of hysteria took off regarding the (unproven) ‘satanic ritual abuse’ of children, which had gone global by the late 80’s. Plus, according to some Christians, rock fans were unwittingly hearing devilish ‘backmasking’ (secret ‘satanic’ messages in the grooves or their LP’s.) Sex itself even became a dangerous pursuit in some quarters of society, with the emergence of the AIDS epidemic.

PLUTO IN SAGITTARIUS (1996-2008)

Sagittarius ‘rules’ religion on a mundane chart and this Pluto transit underpinned plenty of apocalyptic, millenarial thinking by two major Western powers – the US and the UK. The Bush administration was heavily influenced by the Christian Right and its ideas about the end of the world (for Evangelicals, Jesus was returning in 2000.) Pluto also exposes the dark underbelly wherever it exists: for example, cases of sexual abuse in the Catholic church received full scrutiny (and more robust action) from the mid 1990’s onwards – especially in the US and Ireland. Plus, religious-inspired terrorism reached a crescendo. In 1996, Osama bin Laden issued the first of two fatwās that declared a holy war against the US (whose results arrived in the Al Qaeda attacks of 9-11 in 2001).

We’re now seeing Pluto in Capricorn (2008-2024), the sign which represents the Father archetype. In mundane astrology this means traditional, ‘patriarchal’ power structures and authorities like governments, political elites, dictatorships, police forces, armies, financial institutions, Big Business and corporations. In short, it is the Establishment. The System. In some cases, the Father principle is being undermined by Pluto, for the time-honoured, patriarchal approach by the powers-that-be can only work if the values Capricorn embodies are accepted by society as a whole. These days, we’re no longer prepared be accept the word of Authority and power elites on their own terms. More and more people are disenchanted with political leaders, especially when they see the System as being basically rotten. Hence the rise of many protest movements, like Occupy Wall Street, about perceived corruption and privilege within the System.

If Pluto was just about exposing darkness and corruption in high places and we could all simply revolt and bring governments down, we would have our Utopia. But Pluto empowers, too, and it empowers and even exaggerates the archetypes of the sign it is transiting. Hence we’ve see the rise of demagoguery, far-right politics and the unforgiving hand of Authority. On another tack, we also had the Financial Collapse of 2008 when Pluto was just getting started in Capricorn. Capricorn on a mundane chart is also about the power wielded by banking systems, for here is the Establishment yet again with its control over our lives. Pluto’s entrance into Capricorn thus coincided with an undermining of the System, as the issue of toxic loans and the so-called sub-prime market wreaked havoc and led to the Crash. Also, by late December 2010, people were ready to take to the streets – and thus began the so-called Arab Spring, arising from a catalogue of grievances about authoritarian repression, another effect of Pluto in Capricorn.

Pluto in Aquarius- The Last Time

If we look at the last time we saw Pluto in Aquarius (1777 to 1797) there is the humanitarian activist and politician William Wilberforce busily campaigning to abolish the slave trade. (The first country to actually do so was Denmark, in 1792.) As Wikipedia tells us, 1787 saw Wilberforce work with other campaigners who ‘persuaded him to take on the cause of abolition, and he soon became the leading English abolitionist. He headed the parliamentary campaign against the British slave trade for 20 years until the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807.1 We can thus see Pluto’s reforming energies (via Aquarius) all too well in Wilberforce’s ‘causes and campaigns such as the Society for the Suppression of Vice, British missionary work in India, the creation of a free colony in Sierra Leone, the foundation of the Church Mission Society and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.’2 This is Pluto in Aquarius, humanitarian zeal with a vengeance, though of course, he wasn’t alone in this. (Incidentally, when Pluto moved into Pisces – empathy for all of God’s creations, not just humans – the RSPCA was formed in 1824 at the tail end of the Pluto transit, 1797-1823.)

Aquarius is concerned chiefly with groups and collectives, of course, hence the idea of getting together with fellow workers for mutual benefit. In the United Kingdom in 1777, a co-operative of tailors appeared in Birmingham whilst, prior to this, a consumer cooperative was formed in 1769 in East Ayrshire, Scotland, when ‘local weavers manhandled a sack of oatmeal into John Walker’s whitewashed front room and began selling the contents at a discount, forming the Fenwick Weavers’ Society.’3 Plus, according to the Guardian, in 1795, there was the ‘anti-mill’ flour mill in Hull, UK, ‘one of several early English co-operative ventures … set up by local people angry at the high prices charged by commercial millers.’

On the same theme, another example of Pluto in Aquarius is the birth of the Labor Movement in the US after the first recorded strike (of New York journeymen tailors) in 1768 (when Pluto was in Capricorn). Thus, the Federal Society of Journeymen Cordwainer (shoemakers) signalled the start of active trade unions in 1794 (with Pluto now in Aquarius). Hence, strength in numbers, a typical Aquarian theme. Here is how the History website describes the origins of the Labor Movement:

‘The labor movement in the United States grew out of the need to protect the common interest of workers. For those in the industrial sector, organized labor unions fought for better wages, reasonable hours and safer working conditions. The labor movement led efforts to stop child labor, give health benefits and provide aid to workers who were injured or retired.’

It would be an understatement to say that the so-called Rights of Man were very much an issue during this phase of history. One major legacy from this Pluto in Aquarius phase are the two famous Declarations of Human Rights created in the wake of the American and French Revolutions. In fact, it is possible to speak of an actual ‘humanitarian spirit’ at large in the late eighteenth century when the planet of reform and renewal was in the sign of brotherhood and humanity.

I will cover this subject in the part two, together with a comprehensive look at what to expect this time as Pluto enters Aquarius in the Digital Age. A new ‘human revolution’ is underway, but what will that mean? Will it be as moral and ethically based as what happened in Wilberforce’s day? The Aquarian themes of co-operative power, humanitarianism, brotherhood and teamwork all sound wonderful, but won’t there be a dark side, too, with Pluto in Aquarius?

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William...

2. ibid.

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History...

This article was first published in the Summer 2022 edition of Diamond Fire magazine

Images (CC License) credits and sources: European Southern Observatory (ESO) – http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0...
Plus: MumblerJamie – https://www.flickr.com/photos/1843937...

The post Pluto in Aquarius – What’s Going to Happen to Us? (Part One) appeared first on astro.nu.

Here is another sneak preview of my forthcoming book, Astro Magic (How to Use the Magical Moon and Lucky Jupiter to Manifest Your Dreams), due to be published in the Autumn of 2022.

Once upon a time, every society had their Moon Goddess, or mythical Earth Mother. In Greek Myth, the original Mother Nature was Gaia, whose name means “land” or “earth”: she was simply the personification of it. She was self created from the primeval chaos and in time, all of life was born from her all-powerful, fecund womb. As Mother Nature, then, Gaia is the power of healing, nurture and sustenance, a symbol of lush fertility and regeneration, These days the Green movement tries to wake up people to the fact that Mother Earth, or Gaia, is being ‘blasphemed against’, as the occultist Dion Fortune once put it. The planet is literally being ‘raped’ as was Persephone – one of Greek mythology’s moon goddesses. Everything on this planet is dependent on Her, but some humans don’t see this, and the destruction of the environment continues. (There is a ritual for healing the earth that you can perform in chapter Five.)

Feminine Power and the Moon Goddess

Let’s be clear, here, for starters – the terms Masculine and Feminine don’t mean ‘men’ and ‘women’: they are archetypal principles or qualities; how something ‘behaves’ in nature. And just as some women can embody Masculine qualities, so do many men exude Feminine ones. Masculine means the ‘yang’ force – the powers of daylight, logic, decisive outward action and the rational mind, like the left side of our brain. Feminine means the ‘yin’ energies, the forces of the dark and night-time, intuition, subtly going within, the irrational mind, like the right side of our brain.

Feminine activity is about emotions and feelings, imagination, nurture, the needs of the body (as opposed to the intellect), the instincts, and psychic powers. Feminine is also synonymous with ‘lunar’ consciousness, whose strengths are passivity, gentleness and endurance. But the Feminine in nature also contains the most power and our ancestors knew it. It’s the force of eternal endurance. Think of water, the quintessential ‘feminine’ element which can douse fire, and sustain and nourish the earth. It is powerful in other ways: think of the majestic seas and oceans and their hidden dangers we must navigate properly – or perish. Over time, water will wear the largest rock down to grains of sand. But it will also save your life if you’re thirsty, or cleanse and heals your wounds. In short, it’s something we cannot live without it.

Let’s look at the Moon Goddess in ancient myth, and see what stories our ancestors told about them. For example, there is the Triple Goddess, which represents three different stages in the Lunar cycle: the Maiden, or the virgin, the Mother, and the haggard old Crone whose great age gives her wisdom and power. Obviously, they’re all part of the same cycle, and symbolise the new waxing moon, the full moon, and the dark, waning moon up until the time it changes back into a New moon, and the cycle repeats itself.

In astronomy, there are four main lunar phases: the new moon, first quarter, full moon, and last quarter, though for our purposes we’ll be looking only at the New Moon, Full Moon and so called Dark Moon. New Moons occur when the Moon and Sun are conjoined in the sky – the full moon occurs when they’re opposite and the Earth is located between the Sun and the Moon. Broadly speaking, different goddesses are associated with these different stages in the lunar cycle (though quite often they represent all three).

For example, there is the Greek Moon goddess Artemis, or Diana, a virgin who was worshipped in sacred groves as a huntress, her skill with a bow and arrow un-equalled by anyone. Although a Virgin she was a protectress of women in childbirth and their labour pangs. Goddesses took on many roles, and she was a deity who could also ensure bounteous crops.

Diana’s role as goddess of hunters and crossroads symbolically ties in here. Crossroads are always associated with dark powers in ancient legend – in later years it was said the Devil would appear if summoned. But people hunting at night with only the light of the moon for illumination have to make an uncertain choice at the crossroads, left or right. They are fearful, in semi-darkness, but rely on the Goddess to move them in the right direction.

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NEW MOON (WAXING CRESCENT): THE VIRGIN GODDESS

Tarot card – the High Priestess

Time of Year: Candlemas, Celtic Imbolc,1/2 February, beginning of spring

Persephone

The new moon begins the first day of the lunar month. Soon, it will appears as a thin crescent, as it waxes and gathers strength. This apparent weakness and lack of worldliness is why we have the young, virgin moon Goddess – she’s inexperienced, ‘new’ to the world and very vulnerable. In Greek mythology, Persephone embodies the moon in her maiden-virgin aspect (whose mother Ceres or Demeter sought her out when she was suddenly abducted by the underworld God Pluto).

One of her qualities was an insatiable curiosity, for this is (again) how we learn about the world. In this Persephone was like Eve in the Old Testament (tempted by Satan and the apple of knowledge) and another innocent from Greek myth, Pandora. She’d been told not to look inside the box in which all of the world’s ills were safely hidden – and on opening the lid they all flew out to afflict mankind. All except hope.

The power of the New Moon/Persephone is thus the innocent, youthful quest for new beginnings, symbolised by the dawn, spring – all of life coming into being, whether budding flowers and plants, or the commencement of longer days. In Lunar Magic it begins with the waxing moon, when it grows visibly bigger each evening. It’s a time to do spells for gain and increase, when we intend something new to come into our lives.

Brighid

Another Moon Goddess symbolising all that is new is Brighid (or Bridget) from Celtic myth. She later became an important Christian saint, St. Bride, and monks in the 10th century knew her as ‘the goddess whom poets adored,’ since she provided much creative inspiration. Like Artemis, she is a protectress of pregnant women, and according to some was even midwife to the infant Jesus, donning a head-dress of lighted candles, putting three drops of spring water upon the Divine Infant’s brow. (This association with childbirth, the Goddess as Matron, symbolises the second lunar phase – the Full Moon – fecundity and completion.)

One of her titles was Queen of Heaven: she hung her magical cloak upon the sun’s rays, and was honoured at the Celtic fire festival of Oimelc or Imbolc on 31 January, when the short, dark days of winter are finally coming to an end. (St. Bride – the later Christian version – is still celebrated in Ireland.) Her magical garment also featured in a story when she tried to establish a monastery, after a rich baron had promised her land. Stupidly, he then attempted to trick her by allowing only as much land as her cloak would cover. Being a goddess, and capable of any magic, when she removed her cloak it began to extend over many miles. One should never try to fool a divine being.

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FULL MOON: THE GREAT MOTHER GODDESS

Tarot Card – The Empress

Time of Year: Celtic Lughnasadh or Lammas – 1 August, the start of Harvest time

Demeter

The next phase of the Moon Goddess is, of course, the Full Moon, which represents fertility and abundance. The power of the Full New Moon/Demeter symbolises High Summer and the fullness of Nature, when plants are ripe with fruit, when the sun is at its most bright and powerful, when we have the longest day of the year. And when the crops are harvested. It symbolises the experience of maturity, of motherhood.

Think, for example of the Empress card in the Tarot. When she appears in a key position in a spread, you’ll probably experience a time of physical satisfaction at what life has to offer. It reflects a period of personal creativity, maybe artistic, or even in a business sense. Or the ultimate creation – the birth of a child. Whatever nature is providing at this time usually brings feelings of joy, physical comfort, security, and the promise of personal growth. In some packs, the Empress sits next to a massive cornucopia, the horn of plenty, that spills its bounty on to the earth.

Obviously we’re in the realm of the Mother Goddess, just as the moon in astrology symbolises primal survival instincts – what we need. When we’re young we turn to our mother for protection; in the world at large, we turn to Mother (the archetype), the support system we all rely upon for sustenance – the Earth itself, Nature, the Environment. The baby is nurtured by the mother’s body, but humanity is nurtured by the body of the Earth, whose power can be seen in the myths of Demeter, the archetypal goddess of the Harvest.

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DARK MOON: THE CRONE GODDESS (WANING CRESCENT)

Tarot Card – The Moon

Time of Year: Hallowe’en, Celtic Samhain, 31 Oct., the onset of winter

Hecate (and Persephone)

And finally, the Crone or the old woman, symbolising the end of a cycle, the dying away of life. Yet there is power in the darkness. The forces of the Dark Moon/Hecate symbolises whatever is coming to completion – death before rebirth, the old about to make way for the new and the barren, cold stillness of winter when nothing will grow. It’s a time when the days are short and night falls too soon. Outwardly, this is old age readying for the grave – but in magical thinking it symbolises death and rebirth. A rebirth into a new phase of maturity where lessons from the past have been learned. Like the Oak in Celtic lore, great age is synonymous with the wisdom of a lifetime’s experience. Welcome to to the realm of Hecate.

When Demeter was searching for her child, Hecate was her guide in the darkness with her two flaming torches. And after mother and daughter were reunited, Hecate took on the role of advisor to Persephone in the Underworld. (Persephone eventually became Hades’ consort in the depths of the earth.) But before you start thinking Hecate was some sort of benevolent grandmother, she was also the goddess of magic, witchcraft, the night, the moon, ghosts and necromancy (raising the spirits of the dead). In short, the original Queen of Hell.

Offerings to Hecate were made in the ancient world during the morning of a New moon, Small shrines dedicated to her (to ward off evil) were placed at the front door of a house and a meal would be left there in dedication to her. As you might expect, hungry passers by would make off with the food. She was often summoned by Medea, a sorceress, for Hecate gave witches the power to draw down the moon. In the midnight hours Medea stretched her arms to the stars and said: ‘O Mother of Mysteries, who with Selene (the Moon) overcomes the day, and thou, divine three-headed Hecate, who knowest all my enterprises and fortifies the arts of magic.’

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Plus, here’s a powerful money spell from chapter six:

MOON MAGIC FOR THE SECOND HOUSE

GODDESS: DEMETER

PURPOSE: To attract new finances and increased prosperity

TIME OF SPELL: To be performed when the New Moon is in your second house

YOU WILL NEED: A one or two pound coin (for American readers, a dollar coin – see below)

And so we come to nearly everyone’s favourite subject in the magical realm: how to attract money. Think of this spell as a kind of magical law of exchange – something comes back to us when we give. We give; we get, but there are provisos – we must do this with no strings attached. This is what is meant by sacrifice, which is the basis of this particular money spell. The real Nature of the Universe (or what the Universe is secretly trying to do) is to find equilibrium, balance, wholeness. If you take from it, it suffers; if you give to it, it will make a return to you.

Time after time, one can see people supposedly on the spiritual path trying to use magic simply to get money. However, unless they are expert magicians, they will fail miserably. Magic works on a like-for-like basis – what you give you get, but you have to give first. This is why I have chosen the following spell, whose subtitle might be: as ye reap, so shall ye sow! There’s also the important factor of belief – this is the engine of magic, you might say. It’s what gets the Astral Light all fired up, as it were.

The spell below is a kind of votive offering to the nature spirits beloved of Celtic magic, whether you drop a few coins into a wishing well or offer something of higher value by casting gifts into a lake, or a river. In Celtic myth, the elemental spirits (those dealing with wealth and its accumulation) can be found in wells, fountains and springs and the Celts made these solemn offerings to their gods on a regular basis (as the archaeology proves). I’ve also done this spell many times myself: a stream runs past my cottage, and the results are always rewarding if I offer a small gift by casting coins into it.

You can also think of it as a sacrifice to the Moon Goddess. Sacrifice means to ‘render holy’ which we can also express as ‘make whole’ or complete. But this ‘completing’ can only be done by a divine power. Like the Moon Goddess. Either way, if the correct steps are followed she will repay you. When performing your spell, you may add a thanksgiving, too, knowing that your offering will not go unrewarded. The As If Technique, in other words. Don’t think of it as a spell to attract a specific sum of money, but rather, general gain and increase. When you make your offering, say these words to Demeter, goddess of the Earth and Material Increase:

‘Demeter, greatly hail! Lady of Bounty,

I make this offering to you and know that one who sows also reaps.

Blessings for thy gifts of harmony, prosperity and abundance

Blessings for wealth and good things of the earth.

Be gracious, O thrice-prayed for, great Queen of goddesses!’

In a similar way, you can try to attract the attention of the Earth Spirits, who go under various names depending on where they’re from: elves, brownies, dwarves, leprechauns, hobgoblins or faeries. We’re used to thinking of them as if they were tiny people, but in the original Celtic tales they were fully sized supernatural beings. Then there are the gnomes, earth spirits (well known to Scandinavian myth) who guard the mines full of precious treasures secreted deep in the earth. It’s up to you to ‘summon’ this treasure through your magic.

Help from the Earth Spirits can be invoked by leaving an offering of some kind on a suitable altar. I recommend going into a dense, secluded wood and placing a gift (of some value to you) on a round stone or even a tree stump. Where I live the local forestry commission are forever sawing trees down and leaving a circular stump about ten to twelve inches high – this is the perfect place for your offering. Think of it as a circular altar. You may feel better if you can find one in a secluded spot, off the beaten track where others are less likely to find it (though this isn’t absolutely necessary.)

This could be a crystal or piece of jewellery (again, of some value to you – otherwise it isn’t really a sacrifice) or a coin. The higher the value the better. (A two pound coin – with its vaguely golden hue – is suitable for those living in the UK. For American readers, one of the relatively rare gold or silver dollars is perfect, though these coins haven’t been minted in the US since 2011. As a substitute, four Quarters – placed in a pile – will do.) Treat this act with some solemnity and give thanks that the increase in wealth or resources is already on its way towards you. Take this for granted. Magic can only work in the direction of your belief.

Then, turn around without a backwards glance – walk away and forget about it. And I mean really forget about it. This is your gift to the Earth Spirits and in the spirit of gift giving, you offer it without condition. Don’t even worry about some other person discovering your magical gift and ‘stealing’ it. Let it go to the Universe, offer it freely. You have, symbolically, cast your bread upon the waters. Just know that your personal finances will increase in some way – it will be up the powers that be to figure out how.

 

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The Best Alternate Reality Movies – Part TwoCypher (2002, dir: Vincenzo Natali) 9/10

The Cambridge dictionary offers two illuminating definitions of the word ‘cipher’ (the correct way to spell this word) as a ‘person without power, but used by others for their own purposes.’ The other definition says it’s an encoded ‘system of writing that prevents most people from understanding the message’. Both of these statements refer obliquely to what’s really happening at the core of  the excellent Cypher, directed by Vincenzo Natali. You’ll need to watch it at least twice, though. Most people will assuredly be ‘prevented from understanding the message’ first time around.

Cypher is one of the best unsung Alternate Reality movies of all time. An intelligent script from Brian King plays fast and loose with viewer expectations, as it skilfully hides far more than it shows. This, however, makes the final reveal all the more rewarding. How to describe it? Well, let’s start with ‘twisty sci-fi with shades of film noir, a futuristic thriller rooted in corporate espionage.’

Cypher concerns the ineffectual and diffident Morgan Sullivan (Northam) who works for software company, Digicorp. Sent on a secret mission to spy on a rival firm, he secretly records its seminars through a micro-device housed in a pen, something so clichéd that James Bond would wince with embarrassment. The plot thickens, as they say, with the arrival of a mystery woman, Rita Foster (Lucy Liu), whose evident seductive charms aren’t wasted on Sullivan. He’s been told to assume the alias of Jack Thursby, as he ingratiates himself into the shady hi-tech world that is Sunway Systems. He even wakes up one morning to find he – apparently – really is Thursby, complete with a new house, and new wife, there to greet him as he sets off for work.

However, we soon sense far more going on beneath the surface, a much bigger story arc, and it turns out we’re right. It all goes back to the mysterious Rita, with whom Sullivan/Thursby has become entangled. He’s asked to trust her over and over, but can he? Then there is the bombshell: an even shadier figure (whom no one has ever seen) has been subtly pulling strings, by playing Digicorps and Sunways Systems off against each other.

This is one Sebastian Rooks, a wealthy, dangerous freelancer who must sabotage one of these companies in a dangerous mission. He sends Sullivan/Thursby to retrieve a computer disk from the heavily fortified Sunways vault. Apparently, his very life depends on the successful retrieval of said disk. In an action sequence of manoeuvres worthy of the Mission Impossible franchise, the disk is switched and our hero escapes in the nick of time with help from Rita and a helicopter. The disk must then be delivered to a secret location, a large mansion, where our hero will find Rooks.

To digress awhile, perhaps this isn’t strictly speaking an Alternate Reality film, though it’s clear the film’s environment has a strange otherness – hinted at in its bleached out colour, sombre lighting and mild mood of paranoia. Sullivan’s wife, always nagging him for being such a loser, somehow has an air of unreality. As if she was merely following a script – within the movie itself.

Remember when Jim Carrey, in the Truman Show, realised that his life was nothing more than an elaborate screenplay, and everyone was in on it? This is the vague impression created by Cypher. None of this seems quite normal, and Sullivan/Thursby is clearly having some kind of experience. But what kind, exactly? Has he been drugged? Or is everything here some kind of Matrix-like virtual reality? And just who the hell is Rita?

Here come the spoilers. The alternative reality, for most of the film’s 95 minute running time is reserved for Sullivan/Thursby. It is he – and he alone – who’s undergoing an entirely different understanding of the events we see. This sounds confusing, but read on. Our hero is not the bookish wimp we think he is, and indeed, he thinks he is. He isn’t the man we see trapped in a loveless marriage with an overbearing wife. Nor is he the out-of-his-depth, bespectacled worm who falls for a sexy femme-fatale. He is none of these things. He is Sebastian Rooks. The problem is that he doesn’t know it yet.

Rita awaits him at the mansion when the disk is delivered, though he’d been told she was about to lead him to his death, and that once in possession of the disk, Rooks would kill him. Our anxious hero shoots Rita in the arm in an awkward scuffle, at which point he’s summoned to meet The Man. As he waits, it dawns on our hero that he is himself the man  he’s been sent to meet. This is the Big Reveal. His head swirls: a bottle of his favourite whisky, his preferred brand of cigarette, his golf clubs and a photo of him and Rita, are all there in the room.

The whole identity charade has been his own invention – a self-hypnosis to get past Digicorp’s powerful  security and scanning technologies. He needed to convince himself he was someone else, first! The whole thing has been designed by Sebastian Rooks – right down to the counterfeit, nagging wife. If he can remember how to fly the helicopter he built they can escape.

Still, though, we don’t know what was on the disk Rooks stole, and why he had to have it. And we don’t know who Rita is! Not until the last scene. On a luxury boat out on the ocean, we learn Sebastian Rooks and Rita Foster are lovers. The disk contains sensitive information on her, indeed, it’s a digital death warrant. Rooks ceremoniously slings the disc into the sea. All of the preceding was done for love. Mystery solved. Reality restored.

Part one in this series can be found here

Other cultural links can be found here: Eckhart Tolle review

Film posters from Wikipedia(fair usage)

ODEON IMAGE:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...

CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

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Here’s another kind of Fake News – the kind put out by scammers and fraudsters. Here is where we willingly open ourselves up to propaganda, manipulation and deception by others. But why would we do this? Well, the short answer is that we have accepted someone else’s authority – we’ve been conned into thinking the other guy is legitimate. Online scammers and fraudsters do this every time they phish for information about you – they want you to think that the email you’ve just read is authoritative. It may be one apparently sent by your bank, asking for personal details like an account number (which, if it really was your bank, would never happen).

Scammers and fraudsters know we’re susceptible to authority and its demands, so long as they seem genuine. At one time in the past, all one needed to do was put on a white overall and one could walk unhampered through any public hospital – even into ‘staff only’ areas. (You looked like you worked there, and thus, no one would question your presence.)

But our susceptibility and obedience to Authority can land us in trouble, too. Even when it’s clear we should disobey it! A good example comes from 1963, when a social psychologist from Yale University, Stanley Milgram, ran an experiment, to see if physical punishment could improve learning capacity. A test subject in a lab at Yale was empowered in the role of ‘teacher’, whilst another took on the role of ‘learner’, unseen in an adjacent room.

The latter would be tested on their power to recall certain words and with each wrong answer, the ‘teacher’ was told – to their amazement – to administer a brief electric shock to the ‘learner’. A ‘shock generator’ fitted with switches was connected to a cable that ran off into the next room, where the ‘learner’ was hooked up to a ‘shock device’. The more the ‘learner’ got it wrong, the more would the voltage from the shock-box increase.

All of this was overseen by a white-coated lab Experimenter instructing the ‘teacher’ on what to do next – such as when to increase the voltage for the next shock. Its impact was heard as the unseen ‘learner’, next door, cried out in pain. The voltage began at 15, and when the shock levels rose to 75 they could be heard to grunt, then protest at 120. When it reached 150, they had had enough! One might assume it would have ended there, but no. The voltage rose through to 285, when the ‘learner’ could actually be heard loudly screaming or complaining of heart pains! Worse, still, it would be administered at 330 volts when an eerie silence fell. Was the ‘learner’ OK? Were they dead by now?

The various switches used by the ‘teachers’ were labelled with macabre descriptions like Slight Shock, Moderate Shock, Strong Shock, Very Strong Shock, Intense Shock and Extreme Intensity Shock. The last two were labelled: ‘Danger: Severe Shock’, and, chillingly, “XXX.” Many of the ‘teachers’ were hesitant to increase the shock levels when the cries first rang out, but the Experimenter insisted they go on: “The experiment requires that you continue,” was the mantra they repeated. Reluctantly accepting the authority of the Experimenter, the ‘teacher’ pressed another switch. Another, more powerful electric shock, was given. Thankfully, the whole thing was a hoax …

The entire experiment was completely harmless – the ‘learner’ was a specially briefed actor, only feigning their agonies. But what it said about us as civilized humans was far from savoury. Milgram found that a disturbing two thirds of the ‘teachers’ were willing to increase the voltage up to the maximum 450. Their behaviour, when told to continue, ranged from nervous laughter, to sweating, to trembling, to an apparent cold determination to go on. Even when believing they’d already harmed the ‘learner’, some ‘teachers’ persisted. In one variation (when allowed to administer their own choice of shock level) 2.5 percent of them actually used the maximum 450 volts. (The average in this version of the trial was 83 volts.)

However, the overall conclusion was that, in spite of the apparent torture the ‘teachers’ were causing, when coerced by an authority figure, they were quite willing to obey. Those who refused to administer high level shocks were in the minority, and if the controversial experiment proved anything, it’s that too many of us are ready to submit to authority when coerced. Even against our obvious better judgement. Milgram realised all of this:

‘I set up a simple experiment at Yale University to test how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was ordered to by an experimental scientist. Stark authority was pitted against the subjects’ strongest moral imperatives against hurting others, and, with the subjects’ ears ringing with the screams of the victims, authority won more often than not.’1

SCAMMERS AND FRAUDSTERS – A REAL LIFE EXAMPLE

Another chapter in the ongoing history of scammers and fraudsters was written in 2004, at branch of McDonald’s in Mount Washington, Kentucky. Here was an emotionally charged incident that wasn’t quite what it seemed. It was, though, just the kind of scenario scammers and fraudsters dream of. The assistant manager at this branch, Donna Summers, took a phone call from a policeman calling himself “officer Scott.” The reason, he said, was that a member of Summers’ staff had stolen money from a customer, and a  description was given of an employee that seemed to fit one currently there. Scott also stated he’d already spoken to Summers’ superior (not present) and had his full co-operation.

Here is where the bizarre turn of events began – Summers was told by the policeman that the suspect, Louise Ogborn, should be strip-searched there and then since Scott couldn’t be present. Summers agreed and had Ogborn taken to another room, who was told to strip, though wore an apron to retain some modesty. As Summers needed to be elsewhere, she was substituted by someone else. Bizarrely, this turned out to be Summers’ fiancé – a certain Walter Nix who complied with Scott’s orders, and for the next two hours ‘searched’ a naked Ogborn, forcing her to jump up and down (ostensibly to dislodge money possibly secreted in her vagina). As if this wasn’t bad enough, Ogborn was told to search herself with her fingers, and to confirm no money was present by exposing the result. And yet it didn’t end here.

Scott, muttering imprecations to Ogborn, warning of the consequences if she didn’t comply, even devised a scenario where Ogborn would perform oral sex on Nix. He left shortly afterwards, visibly shaken, murmuring darkly about having ‘done something terribly bad.’ In reality, however, there was no suspicion of theft; there was indeed no ‘officer Scott’. The entire episode was a charade, what has since gone down in history as the Strip-Search Phone Call Scam. The prank has resonances with Milgram’s experiment, too: the self-abasement before the ‘voice of authority’ and total absence of any sense of moral gumption that a human being might show. Hardly anyone was doing the right thing, in other words.

Not that everyone did comply – an early witness to the hoax was a cook, Jason Bradley, who gallantly refused to remove Louise’s apron. Similarly, a maintenance worker, Thomas Simms, was asked to keep an eye on Louise and defied Scott’s orders. Eventually, it dawned on Summers that something was amiss and she called her boss – who had definitely not talked to a police officer that day. Then the whole thing unravelled – Summers was fired, Nix pleaded guilty to sexual abuse and got five years in jail. Louise Ogborn received therapy and medication to address post-traumatic stress disorder.

What beggars the imagination is that the above was no isolated incident, in fact, there had been at least five previous strip-search phone hoaxes, beginning in January 2003.2 Five times this bizarre scam had occurred, apparently without anyone wondering if a serial prankster was at work. Eventually, a certain David Richard Stewart was arrested and charged in connection with the Mount Washington incidents, but he was later acquitted.

A feature film was released in 2012, Compliance, based on these events. It makes for shocking viewing, the New York Times commenting that incidents in the film raised troubling questions about human nature – how can people fail to notice when something is seriously wrong? 3 As I watched the film, I kept asking myself ‘why the hell can’t the Summers character just stop and think: maybe this guy on the phone isn’t all he seems!?’

But we often don’t stop to question whether what we’re being told is true. Even in a bizarre situation like the one above. Summers hadn’t even met the fake policeman – everything had been conducted by telephone. One must obey the law, right? That’s what we’re told. Then again, what about asking questions? Question what you hear on the TV news, in the tabloids (and broadsheet newspapers), particularly where the supposed ‘authority’ (like a government) has something to gain by fabricating or distorting the truth. (As with most political media stories).

Scammers and fraudsters (who are certainly found in the governments of just about any country) can only be successful if we let them. (Admittedly, in politics, we may have to wait for an election to get rid of them.) Generally, though, con artists will vanish as swiftly as a vampire in sunlight if we ask the right questions. There’s an old adage that says ‘if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is’. This also applies to men wearing white lab coats, and others claiming to be policemen.

Don’t be afraid to challenge others if you think an ‘authority’ might be wrong; not just scammers and fraudsters. What if the authority – whether scientists, historians, or the Pope – is actually wrong about certain things?  Maybe this was on Einstein’s mind when he said: ‘Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.’ And doesn’t this ‘unthinking respect for authority’ have even worse consequences, when war crimes are committed by ‘mere’ soldiers doing their ‘duty’ for the government?

I end with the words of C.P. Snow who had it that: ‘When you think of the long and gloomy history of man you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.’

1. Stanley Milgram, “The Perils of Obedience,” Harper’s Magazine (1974).

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Authority

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strip_s...

3. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/mov...

4. Albert Einstein, in a letter to Jost Winteler, c.1901. Highfield, Roger; Carter, Paul (1994), “The Delicate Subject”, The Private Lives of Albert Einstein (1st United States ed.), St. Martin’s Press (Macmillan), pp. 78–79.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Respect

 

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Life is often unfair and unjust – it seems that – at the time of writing – Liz Greene’s Relating, the astrology classic from 1977, is  only available second hand (on Amazon) or at some exorbitant price. This is a downright tragedy for Western civilisation, since Liz Greene’s Relating: An Astrological Guide to Living with Others on a Small Planet is quite simply the best astrology book penned in the last hundred years. Possibly ever.

OK then, I’m biased, but it’s not too much to claim that it’s – at least – the ultimate work on so-called psychological astrology. This hybrid is largely based on the insights of Carl Jung into the complex and often unpredictable workings of the human psyche. If, as Robert Hand stated, the birth chart is a ‘map of the psyche’, then clearly there ought to be an interface for both modern psychology and astrology. One that can illuminate both subjects. This interface turns out to be Liz Greene’s Relating.

However, some people at my local astrology group are even a little sniffy about psychological astrology, reckoning that the traditional event-based form (as in predictive work) is the only valid one. But this is like the modern physicist ignoring the obvious philosophical implications of quantum physics as they shout, ‘forget the waffle -just show me the math’. The old meat-and-potatoes approach to astrology (even the brilliant John Townley once told me the Jungian/archetypal view is ’bogus’) forgets that outer event-based interpretations always have as their basis the ‘inner’ psyche – there is no world at all without Consciousness. Jung’s Synchronicity is just as much about the external as it is the internal world. In the end, there is no difference between the two.

It is common knowledge that Carl Jung, the brilliant Swiss psychologist who did so much to illuminate our inner selves, was deeply interested in (and impressed by) astrology. For anyone who ever wondered how the unconscious mind works, or even the ancient art and ‘science’ we call astrology, then Liz Greene’s Relating is the classic work to have. One that should be in the possession of any self-respecting astrologer.

The book made an enormous impression on me whilst figuring out, back in 1983, just how all this Jungian psychology stuff connected to the horoscopic art. It was a theme I developed for my own book Jungian Birth Charts (Aquarian Press, 1988) and, in fact, I couldn’t have written it without Greene’s superb text. To this day, I always think of both astrology and depth psychology as essentially the same. The Jungian scheme of typology, his theories about the Collective Unconscious and the phenomenon of Synchronicity – and astrology’s planets and signs (indeed the aspects as archetypes) – are like two sides of the same coin. In other words, you can’t have one without the other, simply because the chart also points to psychological factors and archetypes (disguised as ‘planets’) in the psyche which often remain unconscious, often working away to undermine the individual ego, and hence one’s life in general.

In particular, astrology points to the phenomenon of psychological projection, which Greene likened to ‘an image projected onto a screen’, whereupon we ‘look at the image and respond to it, rather than examining the film or transparency … which is the real source of the image.’ She explains that ‘when a person projects some unconscious quality within himself onto another person he reacts to the projection as though it belonged to the other; it does not occur to him to look within his own psyche for the source of it.’ Significantly, she adds, such a person will ‘treat the projection as though it existed outside him’.

This is the real Law of Attraction – we draw on qualities in others that we’re ignorant of in ourselves. And so there are hidden elements at work in the greater psyche, ready to trip us up, or flood the ego with emotions it can’t handle, or simply bring out the worst in us when we were trying to be good.

The message in both astrology and Jung is also the same: know thyself. Both disciplines offer us the chance at much better self awareness for those capable of it. This is because both astrology and Jungian psychology require a new pair of eyes. You need to be able to ‘see’ how the symbolism works and – moreover – see just how universal archetypes are fundamental to human psychology, indeed, life in general. The ones who won’t get it are the philosophical materialists who cannot conceive of the source of life as anything other than ‘things’, made of matter.

Archetypes are all of life’s ultimate ‘building bricks’ that are not made of matter – they are what we can’t do without, what are left with when we’ve run out of explanations. Let me explain. ‘Love’ is a universal archetype. Any and every explanation for why love exists will always fall short, certainly any from neuroscience, neo-Darwinism, or sociobiology. We simply cannot make any definitive statement about it. All we know is how it touches us, how this seemingly external force enters into us, lives through us. But we certainly cannot exist without it – and this is the point. Love is just a fact of life. It’s archetypal.

Greene covers all of the chief Jungian archetypes which have substitute astrological symbols. The Shadow, our ‘Mr Hyde’ aspect, is to be found mirrored in the planetary archetype of Saturn, for example. We also get a clear idea of just how we operate in personal relationships, through Jung’s concept of the Anima and Animus – the archetype which makes us fall in love. (Essentially, the Anima or Animus is the unconscious image of the ‘ideal partner’ that propels us into relationships with those who embody its qualities.)

All of this sounds like it might be a little dry and technical, but the style has a nice, elegant semi-academic flourish. As already stated, Liz Greene’s Relating is one of the best astrology books you can buy, certainly for its profundity and erudition – you’ll come away much wiser about yourself once you’ve finished reading. It’s even pretty accessible for those with only limited knowledge, and there’s nothing here to alienate the astrological beginner. The plaudits found on the rear cover of the original paperback version (published back in the day by Coventure) are wholly justified, one from Horoscope Magazine reads: If you only read one astrology book this year … made it. Even if you plan to read only one book of any kind this year, Relating would still be an excellent choice.’ Go on – get yourself a copy. Even if it’s only second hand!

Images (fair usage): Wikimedia Commons

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