Category: Current Events

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The U.S. Pluto Return

What the heck is going on? The U.S. has been in political and social chaos for a few years now. People are deeply divided. Facts don’t make an impact on discussions. A pandemic swept through—actually a few since the virus kept mutating. Political corruption keeps being revealed. Gun violence is raging. The Congress passed a tepid bill only to have the Supreme Court dismantle gun control in New York State. Not to mention wiped away abortion rights for women just yesterday.

But this is not a political post. This is about astrology.

The U.S. is going through a Pluto return. What’s that?

Pluto has traveled all the way around the U.S. birth chart and returned to the same degree. This happened on February 20, 2022. Pluto made an exact conjunction to its natal degree at 27° Capricorn in the 1776 US Sibly Chart. There’s a bit of controversy over the exact time the Declaration of Independence was signed, but Pluto is a slow moving planet, so it doesn’t make that much difference for this part of the chart.

OK, so Pluto has returned. So what?

Pluto is the planet of death, the underworld, and rebirth. When Pluto comes calling, we have to look under the covers to see what we’ve hidden. We hide what we’re ashamed of. Also our traumas. All the ugly scars, wounds, mistakes and awfulness. We fight this. Nobody likes airing their dirty laundry, much less facing fears and shame—feelings that we’re sure will kill us and harm the world if we let them loose.

And we’re talking about a country here. A country that was full of Native Americans before the Europeans showed up. A country that used enslaved people for labor and treated those people in ways are so horrific I don’t even want to write it down. See, that’s Pluto. Pluto says you better look at it.

Whew! It’s intense, and I’m a Scorpio. Ruled by Pluto. I’m pretty comfortable with the underworld.

Pluto will bring all this shadow stuff to the surface so it can be healed. How do we heal it? We just feel it. We just face it. We don’t fight the feelings. But we don’t take it all out on somebody else either. We breathe. We meditate. We do what we can to put people with integrity in leadership positions in government and corporations.

(I hear you laughing. See how bad the corruption has gotten?)

The good news is after this reckoning, after our walk through our unconscious, after we bring all these wounds to the surface to be healed, we get to be reborn. The U.S. is remaking itself. We will emerge from this new and fresh and full of light, just like any newborn. We can reclaim what still works about our original vision, and there’s a lot of good there.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men – people – sentient beings – are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” There’s one revision. We could change “their Creator” to “Universal Consciousness,” but that’s just me. Maybe you, too.

When it all gets to be too much, take a break. Meditate. Listen to this chant. Then get up and pursue your dream for the U.S.

Peace to all beings. May we all remember who we really are.

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Justice and Mercy: Finding the Balance

The recent US election results have created a storm of reaction, ranging from let’s revolt, even violently, to let’s all be kind to each other and hope nothing bad happens. These are two expressions of the two spiritual forces of Justice and Mercy. Two unbalanced expressions.ptah-tree-of-life1

On the Kabalistic Tree of Life, Justice and Mercy are represented by the polarities of Geburah and Chesed, on opposite sides of the tree at what would be shoulder-level on a human. These spheres are high on the tree, above Tipareth at the heart, the place that represents the enlightened and sacrificed God, so you can see that the energies are big and cosmic, and balancing them can be a challenge for us mortals.

Geburah is often represented by the sword, sometimes the flail in Egypt, while Chesed by the shepherd’s crook. Geburah is Cosmic Justice, creating boundaries and limitations, restraint, passing fair judgment. It is the sphere of might and strength, giving us the ability to tear down old patterns that don’t work anymore and rebuild something that is more functional.

crook-flailChesed is grace, benevolence, and compassion. Chesed is the wise and good leader, the desire to embrace all of creation in loving kindness. It is the comforter, the restorative, the silver lining. It is the boundless outpouring of Divine Love.

The mistake spiritual people make is thinking we should always go with the crook. We should be the kind shepherd who gently guides the sheep who are straying, that we should always give mercy, understand extenuating circumstances, give people the benefit of the doubt. If it doesn’t work, we chastise ourselves that we are not merciful enough, that we should curb our anger, that we should act like Buddha or Jesus. But remember Psalm 23, “Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” These are images of Geburah first and Chesed second. The two go together.

tygerThink of William Blake’s two poems that are about a similar balance–“The Lamb” and “The Tyger.” After the sweet lamb, he writes about the tyger, and asks the ultimate question:  “Did He who made the Lamb make thee?” Of course the answer is yes.

But Chesed can become imbalanced just as Geburah can. Justice is imbalanced when it is too harsh or done for personal gain. Imbalanced Geburah is violence for its own sake, punishing too much, choking off the life force, limiting for personal gain rather than correction.

Too much Mercy can lead to an imbalance as easily as too much Justice. Mercy is imbalanced when it is emotional weakness, gullibility, giving to someone who is manipulative or exploitative. We see bullying but we’re afraid to confront it, so we don’t speak up. Or “Johnny, this is the tenth time you haven’t cleaned your room, but I know you don’t feel like it, and last time your foot was hurt, and the time before you had homework, so I’ll overlook it. Again.” Johnny ain’t never going to clean his room this way, right? Johnny needs some discipline. That’s where Justice comes in.

Do we beat Johnny? Do we ridicule him? Do we throw him out of the house so he’ll learn his lesson? No. That’s imbalanced Justice. We set limits and boundaries. We create consequences. We help him learn by using balanced discipline. Good Geburah is just this. Balanced discipline.

Our own behavior trying to be merciful in the face of bullies and tyrants can take a toll not just on our health, but on society. Even the world if you live in the country that has as much power as the US does at the moment. When we’re constantly stuffing our feelings, trying our best to act in a certain way to assuage the bully, to point out that, for example, industrial waste is killing the animals and perhaps the corporation might feel compassion and act responsibly pretty please, do you have much chance of success? Most likely not.

Yes, but we’re supposed to always be positive, to always be nice, to always act with compassion, never to be violent. Right?

I’ve discussed this idea in another post. Acting enlightened is not the path to enlightenment. An enlightened person is constantly in touch with that One Consciousness and acts under the guidance of cosmic law. Because they directly experience that we are all immortal, that everything is the One, they don’t feel restricted by what is happening here in the created world. Yet, do they always act nonviolently? Do they always appease?

No. Jesus kicked butt in the temple and threw out the money lenders. Did he act against cosmic law? No.

Arjuna is frozen at the start of a battle in The Bhagavad Gita. Should he fight and incur karma? Or should he sit the battle out and allow his family and friends to be slaughtered, thus incurring karma? He turns to his chariot driver, Lord Krishna, for advice.

krishnaarjunaKrishna’s advice? “Established in Being, perform action.” That means, gain enlightenment. Establish your consciousness in the One, and from that cosmic perspective, perform action that will be in harmony with creation. In the end, Arjuna does go into battle, because going into battle is the right thing to do in those circumstances.

What about us poor slobs who aren’t quite established in Being yet? Do we get to sit on the sidelines and meditate, not acting since we might make a mistake?

No, we do not. We act. We set limits. We do what will bring society back toward balance. We study Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.’s techniques of nonviolent action. We do our best.

It’s OK to feel angry. To feel depressed. To feel desperate. But we do need to act. We might make mistakes doing it, but we can learn from them. And when we go home from the march or hang up from the call to our congressman, we meditate. We do ritual. We move closer and closer to becoming established in Being.

Best of luck out there, kindred. We’ve got quite a job ahead of us.

 

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Random Penguins

Obama has won a resounding victory. Marijuana is now legal in Colorado and Washington. Three states passed marriage equality. And Random House and Penguin are merging. On this last, the Author’s Guild is less than enthusiastic. Read their statement on the Writers Beware blog.

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What Science and Politics Have in Common

In the mid twentieth century, Thomas S. Kuhn wrote his landmark The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. He talked about how science changes. Not in the neat and orderly way we might think it should. If something is proven, then everyone should accept the facts, right?

Wrong. What Kuhn noticed is that the first response to a change in scientific fact is that it just gets ignored. Yawn. Ho-hum. Huh?

Yeah, if this new way of looking at things keeps being discussed and more evidence piles up, then it gets noticed. Not accepted, though. The second step is the new idea gets attacked and ridiculed. Pseudo-science. Cranks.

If the new idea persists, then all of a sudden there’s what Kuhn called a paradigm shift. Everyone accepts the new way of looking at things. They say, “We knew that all along.” Of course, there are a few holdouts. They’re now called cranks.

Maddening? Yes, but we’re emotional creatures as much as we want to say we’re rational. That we accept the facts.

Politics is the same. Take Occupy Wall Street. First, it was ignored. What protesters? We don’t see any protesters.

Then it was ridiculed. Look at those worthless, dirty hippies all out there acting ridiculous and having too much fun. They don’t even know what they’re protesting.

Now it’s being attacked. Check this out. And you know what, Peter King is right. We’re back.

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When I Talked to Nixon

I recently received an email asking me if I was the same Theresa Crater who talked to Richard Nixon about the Beatles. I answered yes and asked how s/he knew (Lee P). This little piece of the past had floated up from the Seattle Times and been reposted:  Could Beatles Become Issue in Campaign?

One Sunday my father took me to the Greensboro Airport because Richard Nixon was scheduled to be coming through. This was February 3, 1964 and I was 13 years old. When he arrived, I noticed that people were walking up to him to ask questions. I thought that’s what we were all supposed to do. I didn’t realize these people were the press. So, I asked him about what was uppermost in my mind. “Mr. Nixon, do you like the Beatles?”

Everything stopped. He paused and waited for the press to gather close. Then he told me he didn’t understand them, but his daughters liked them. I thought he was a bit dense not to understand the Beatles. Now I realize I may have been partly responsible for Nixon’s political come-back. For that I offer my sincere apology.

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The Personal is NOT Political–Always

Back in the day, the budding feminist movement of the 60s had a slogan:  “the personal is political.” What did it mean?

When women experienced inequality or violence against them, it was often in what was thought of as the personal world. If a woman was physically abused by her husband, that was a family matter (personal). Women were discriminated against in the workplace because they might get married (personal) and pregnant (personal), and they couldn’t be counted on to stay in a job.

Pregnant, single women hid from society because that was a personal tragedy, and in order not to be “ruined,” that is still eligible to be married, a woman was expected to hide this at all costs. In fact, the Florence Crittenton Homes for Unwed Mothers first started because a woman swallowed ground up glass when she found herself pregnant and unmarried.

Sex was personal; therefore, rape was personal. So were relationships between husband and wife. A husband was owed sex by virtue of being married. And no self-respecting woman got raped. That only happened to women who were out at the wrong time or dressed the wrong way. They were asking for it. We just didn’t talk about personal issues in public.

The feminist movement made the claim that if a majority of a group were all affected by similar circumstances, then that was a political situation. The definition of “political” was broadened to include social hierarchies, social situations in which one group held power over another. So, women’s problems weren’t personal anymore if a majority of women were affected by them. They were political. These issues needed to be discussed and social policies and institutions created to deal with them.

But now in 2011, this situation has gotten out of hand. Nothing seems to be personal anymore. It’s time to have some things be personal again.

Like Anthony Weiner’s photographs. By no stretch of the imagination is his wife Huma Abedin helpless or being oppressed by her husband. She is completely empowered to take care of herself, her situation and her baby with or without her husband as she sees fit. As for the women Anthony tweeted, they are empowered to take care of themselves as well. They are consenting adults. They can enjoy their little thrill or seek therapy for being shocked—whatever is appropriate to their experience.

Anthony Weiner is one of the only representatives who will stand up to Republicans. That is why this has even been brought to our attention. Other politicians have done worse and stayed—most of them Republicans. Except, of course, for Winston Churchill, who was wild in his private life. So, let’s stop gossiping about Weiner and be titillated by his pictures in private. Let him do his job in public—and he does a damn fine job!