The U.S. election, just past, has certainly clarified things. America has now opted, officially this time, for a regime whose most telling feature is xenophobia with religious overtones. This is a symbolically appropriate outcome given the planets involved and the signs they are in.

As observers of Pluto know (see The Temple in Flames, on this website), the passage of this planet through the sign of religion intensifies and polarizes belief systems as part of a great cosmic purge, whose function is to get rid of obsolete assumptions in the mass mind. Religious wars constitute a low-level example of this process at work; as does the election of a simple-minded leader who reduces complex moral issues to Sunday-School-dropout clichés while he wreaks havoc upon civilizations he knows nothing about. World observers need to know that for Americans who are not made numb by propaganda, the scenario is soul-troublingly, monstrously wrong.

But those of us who seek meaning in planetary archetypes need to step back now and look at the big picture. If we review the tenures of Pluto in Sagittarius, which recur every two-and-a-half centuries, we see a pattern of mass ideological breakdown. From an astrological point of view, it makes sense that a cult-like oligarchic cartel has secured control of the most powerful country in the world. Indeed, the apocalyptic imagery employed by our president's ludicrously shallow spiritual advisers provides clues about a greater plan that far outstrips their intention.

Pluto uses life-or-death intimidation tactics to force us into breakthroughs of awareness, and this month the dark god is drawing a line in the sand. As Bush himself said, a couple of years ago: "You're either with us or against us."  It was one of those remarkable truth-out-of-the-mouths-of-babes statements he tends to make, which double as inadvertent encapsulations of what astrological transits are saying.

The truth is that all of us must take a moment to soul-search now, asking ourselves where we stand in this new millennial terrain.

Understanding and regrouping

But before we commit to either an activity or a stance, we need to commit to understanding. We Americans can't just flirt with understanding; we need to commit to it, as a way of life: nothing else will lead to a righting of the wrongs being perpetrated by our governments upon the world we love. And if we despair over the apparent refusal of many Americans to commit to an understanding beyond the simplistic and fear-driven nonsense they see on television, let us remember first of all that it is not in numbers of people that the power of human understanding is measured. It has never been about the quantity. It is through quality of understanding that mass darkness moves into the light.

That said, it should give us hope to realize that in the current situation the numbers, too, are on the side of the Lightworkers. The anti-war American public tends to forget that the people of the world are overwhelmingly opposed to everything Bush does and is.

The over-hyped presidential horserace is now over, after countless staggeringly insincere speeches and four billion dollars spent. Those of us who were mesmerized by the spectacle need to remember that it was not the electoral process that ended the war in Viet Nam. It was masses of people in the streets, a testament to the radical consciousness shift brought about by the Uranus-Pluto conjunction of the mid-sixties.

Forty years later, the movement is increasingly global. For better or worse, the entire world population becomes more anti-Washington with every month that passes. That international antipathy seems to be focused upon Bush and not misplaced upon ordinary Americans is a credit to the political sophistication of those who observe from afar. It is sobering to recognize that most non-Americans are far more able to make this crucial distinction -- between the people of a country and the government of that country -- than Americans themselves are. The fact that we in the USA have allowed our government to do what it has done in the realm of foreign policy over the past few years has exposed us as being politically and historically ignorant beyond anyone's expectation.

The antidote to this folly is information and understanding.
It is time to go fully trans-national in our perspective: the people of the world are the collective entity we need to identify with now. We need to move our reference points from the partisan to the global and, perhaps, finally to the universal, realigning our allegiances if need be. Times like these cause many to mutate from being loyal members of a political party to being loyal members of the world family. Only by stepping outside of societal group-think will we be able to claim true kindred spirithood with souls anywhere, everywhere, who seek peace and justice.

"Think globally, act locally", say the activists. Astrology too subscribes to this maxim by conferring meaning upon the exact location on Earth occupied by the native whose transits are being calculated. We need to start where we are; our role derives from where we are located. As the rest of the world watches in dismay from the outside, American truth-seekers are on the inside, and for a reason.

Let us make use of the transits upon us, so that we can approach with understanding our place in all of this.

As above, so below

There are three planetary stations this month. Each station will have effects that linger well beyond its point of exactitude, even as the election will have effects well beyond Nov. 2nd. This essay will discuss the first of the three. It will surprise no one that the symbolism involved describes the responsibility of American power.

For the past couple of months, transiting Saturn has been opposed to Pluto in the chart of the USA. 1 On November 7th, the aspect peaked for the first time in its cycle, as Saturn made a retrograde station at 27 Cancer 19 minutes, the same degree as our collective Pluto at 27 Capricorn 33 minutes.

Does this duet sound familiar?  It is the combination of planets which prevailed in 2001; the combo that changed the numbers 9/11 from a date into a mythos. At that time, the opposition was between transiting Saturn and transiting Pluto. Now, it is between transiting Saturn and the USA's natal Pluto.

Cosmic echoes

On October 30th 2004, with the Saturn/US Pluto opposition exact to the degree, Osama bin Laden suddenly reappeared on the front page of American newspapers. His new communiqué names American foreign policy as the reason for his assault on New York three years ago. He said the same thing in his 2001 statement, which was censored by the mainstream press and unread by most of the public.

Again he draws a parallel between the violence he is choosing to perpetrate and the violence the American military perpetrates daily on Arab countries, then and now.  In the years since his attacks killed three thousand American civilians, American fire has killed one hundred thousand Iraqi civilians.

In The Buck Stops Here, in this magazine, we discussed cosmic
echoes. These are transits that come along in a distinct series, offering variations upon a single planetary theme. Here, the theme is the danse macabre between power (Pluto) and responsibility (Saturn). 2

This month the heavens are asking us to refer back to that first big statement of the theme which exploded three years ago, challenging the USA to balance these two opposing aspects of leadership.

The responsible use of power. This is the password America was given to enter into the new millennium. Have we come to grips with its meaning?

Astrology: a coded timing device

It's an ingenious system, really. With each cosmic echo, we get another chance to understand the meaning of the theme.

No more and no less than this is signified by planetary configurations, even if through the ages people have looked to the sky to tell them explicitly what to do.  Alas, no personalized directions are spelled out up there. No magical revelations are sent down, lightning-bolt style, to convert the ignorant to wisdom; and no specific events are made to happen because heavenly bodies form certain angles in the sky. It is difficult
for the modern mind to fathom, but astrology does not operate by
cause-and-effect.

"The gods help those who help themselves", and so do the planets. Astrology demands a certain pro-activity in the process of raising consciousness. Celestial cycles don't force us to understand anything; they do not have agency. They simply announce themes, which can, if read with discernment, become lessons for humanity; and they specify when those lessons are going to be taught.

If astrologers disappoint those who expect more than this, call it an occupational hazard. Meanwhile, I propose we make use of what astrology is capable of doing: de-coding these themes for those who wish to understand.

___________________________
Notes:
1 According to the 7/4/1776, 5:10pm chart.
2   For an analysis of the Sept 11 transits, see:
(see www.mothersky.com/writing.html#saturnpluto and
www.mothersky.com/writing.html#saturn_america_sun_2)

Editor's note: this article is Jessia Murray’s professional opinion on the astrological future of the US at this time - it is not a political statement. As you know this Site has no political or religious position, and welcomes contributions from people of every faith (or none) and from all backgrounds and cultures.

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