A World on Pause: December 21, 2012 (Part One)

PART 1 of 3

A SERIES ON WHAT WILL HAPPEN THE DAY THE MAYAN CALENDAR ENDS

December 21, 2012. The date is on everyone’s tongue. We all want to know what will happen on the day widely accepted to be the date the Mayan calendar, and supposedly the world, will end. A discussion of the calendar is beyond my expertise, so I’m not going to talk about the Long Count here. I’m also not going to discuss the galactic center, black hole in the Milky Way, solar flares, or shifting of the magnetic poles. That’s astronomy, geology, and maybe physics, but not astrology, and I am not qualified to argue any of their merits.

Chart above: December 21, 2012 at 11:12 AM, GMT, Greenwich, England The Winter Solstice / Capricorn Ingress chart

I’m sure that astrologically, those conditions will have a significant effect on earth, but any astrologer who tells you he can predict what the result will be, is guessing. An educated guess, but still guessing. Astrology is based on what has happened in the heavens and the observed correspondence with what has happened on earth. No one knows what will happen on the fateful day in question, because no one who may have witnessed it before is alive to tell it, nor do any records of it remain. The closest we can come to the popular doomsday prediction of which I’m aware, is the mention of the sinking of Atlantis nine thousand years before Plato, as told in his Great Dialogues.

Every baby is born somewhere, and that place colors his destiny and viewpoint forever. This "baby," being born on December 21, 2012, is the most highly anticipated global event since the birth of Christ. Is it the Second Coming? Or arrival of an antichrist? One of the decisions to be made when casting a chart for this yet-to-be event, is to determine the location, similar to the way the Magi followed a star to the birth of Christ.

I considered casting the chart for Washington D.C., our nation’s capital, because if there is a catastrophic event, that is where we will turn for answers. But that might entail a lot of politics. Will the U.S. have a lame duck president? The first female president? Lord forbid, another president who doesn’t know what to do. Then again, in the case of Armageddon, would anyone know what to do? I’m not going to get into politics here because I have strong opinions, and I don’t wish to offend anyone. I will give an unbiased account of what the planets show. The question is whether the charts show chaos for that day. Are there any aliens or asteroids in it? A global financial meltdown, a crumbling planet, or rapture? You want me to tell you already, don’t you? Then skip ahead. At your own peril, of course.

I considered Memphis as the birthplace for the chart, seeing as how this is Memphis Astrology, but that’s too localized. The events are almost universally anticipated to be mind-boggling and life changing, so I’d have to check it to see if Elvis would be returning to the building.

No; whatever is coming is bigger than even that. Whatever is coming is coming globally. Mankind is holding its breath. In the end, I decided to cast the chart for Greenwich Meantime (London), because that’s where all time zones originate. It is the global standard, our Zulu time.

Next was deciding at what time the day will be born. Sunrise and noon charts are widely popular when the birth time is unknown. Others believe midnight is the way to go. After all, the calendar changes over at midnight everywhere. But the day is even bigger than mankind’s puny measurements. The real significance of the day is that it’s the Winter Solstice, and has been since long before Jesus or Elvis were born.

THE WINTER SOLSTICE

The Winter Solstice is the shortest day and longest night of the year in the northern hemisphere. Man has been observing this important day at least since the Bronze Age, and monoliths were built by Druids partially to warn of its arrival—the start of winter—when food would be in short supply. Across the northern latitudes of Europe, where many monoliths remain, when the sun sets on the winter solstice, it doesn't rise again for three days. It's on Christmas Day—a fixed date supposedly chosen without regard to the movement of the planets—that the sun (The Son) is (re)born, and hope for the future is renewed.

The Winter Solstice is timed by the moment the sun reaches zero degrees and zero minutes in the sign of Capricorn, which happens just before noon in Greenwich (London) for this chart. Our attention is focused squarely on this moment, one that could be the beginning of the end.

I will introduce the players first, then get into their performance.

MUTUAL RECEPTION

 This chart has an unaspected planet, which is Mars. You can see that at 26 degrees of Capricorn, he stands alone, receiving neither help nor hindrance from any other planet. An unaspected planet is a powerful force, but the rule of thumb is that it’s not unaspected if it’s in mutual reception, as this Mars is.

He’s in Capricorn, the sign that Saturn rules. And Saturn is in Scorpio, of which Mars is the ancient ruler, and still co-ruler.

Nevertheless, I’m not going to dismiss it out of hand because a rule of thumb is just that, not a mandate carved in stone. It bears examining. Before I begin that, it’s also noteworthy that Pluto is included in this mutual reception. Along with Mars, he’s the other co-ruler of Scorpio, and he too, is in mutual reception with Saturn. So in a way, they are interchangeable. So interchangeable, in fact, that it’s difficult to tell them apart. This is not an aspect or configuration, but it’s easy to see that they are in deep cahoots with each other, so we need to investigate who they are and what they’re up to.

Skull and Bones, 1900. Percy Rockefeller seated right.

George W. Bush and Fred Smith, founder of FedEx,

are members, too.



One of the reasons it’s so difficult to predict what will happen is that there are so many variables. Try this exercise for a moment. Imagine that in front of you is a closed box with two holes into which you place your hands. Inside is an object that you may touch, but not hear, see, smell nor taste, and you must say exactly what the thing is. In this particular box is a flat, oblong-shaped object with a tubular, flexible spine similar to cartilage or tendon that runs the center of it, lengthwise. It is flanked on both sides with something different, something that feels like the softest, finest teeth of a comb, that either ruffle or smooth out, depending on the direction it is stroked. Have you guessed it yet? No, it’s not a penis, for heaven’s sake. It’s a feather. But it’s not just a feather. It was once part of something bigger, just as the earth is part of something bigger. You’re supposed to be exact, so you need to state what that "something bigger" was. An eagle, an ostrich, a parrot, a robin? Maybe it came from a pillow, or mattress. Maybe it’s a decoration from our daughter’s hair, or an earring from the ‘70’s. Maybe it’s a quill.

In the same way, we know that each planet has a correspondence to events on earth, but we’re being asked for specifics. We measure the planet’s strength and weakness by the mode and element it’s in, and the part of the chart it occupies. We predict how it will behave by the sign it is in. We judge how it will react by the aspects it receives from other planets. We see in which areas of our lives it will take place by looking at the houses it occupies, and those it rules. And then we try to cover all the different factors that it represents, attempting to narrow down the various ways it could work out. So let’s return to that possibly unaspected Mars.

MARS IN CAPRICORN

Mars is not a feather. He is a penis. It’s no coincidence that the Y Chromosome resembles one…the symbol for Mars, I mean. He’s the planet that represents the male gender, and all its glories: competition, war, aggression, anger, sex, sports, action, blood, wounds, burns, pyrotechnics, tools, and weapons, just to start from the top of my head. He can be a big dick and a little prick, extending his middle finger. He’s physical energy. He’s on the move. Mars goes after that which he desires, and is not in the habit of being told "no." He loves to compete but dislikes opposition. He is forceful and will bully his way to achieving his goals if necessary, or maybe sometimes just because he can.

Mars in this chart is in the sign of Capricorn. That’s considered to be an exalted position because he’s actually more comfortable and better behaved there than he is in his own signs (he rules hot-headed Aries, as well as co-ruling the Scorpio underworld with Pluto). Capricorn is the sign of authority, executives, bankers, leaders, administrators, corporations, management, construction, agriculture, engineering, security, responsibility, reliability, dependability, control…it’s Big Brother, as well as your bossy big sister who was always telling you what to do, and was so perfect that she never once got into trouble in her whole life. Saturn types are conservative, Republican, Moral Majority, pro-life. So put this coat on energetic and aggressive Mars, and what happens? He doesn’t get mad; he gets busy. He takes over. He goes to work. He builds something. Brad Pitt has Mars in Capricorn. It’s well known that he originally wanted to be an architect, and he launched the Make It Right Foundation that built homes in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. To Mars in Capricorn, it was a business decision. Aspects from other planets made it a charitable one.

Even the best of plans can go awry if one planet receives bad aspects from other planets. Every white cloud casts a shadow. The flip side of Mars in Capricorn is that he can be boring and not much fun a lot of the time. He creates a hard environment in which few want to live. He can be the punch line to an old joke: Yeah, but who wants to live in an institution?

Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, the Lord of Cold. Steel cold. Imagine that kind of resolve directed toward something. Both Saturn and Mars are ambitious. The dark side of that is avarice. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and when authority is grabbed, when it’s over-extended, the dark side is ruthless: the surest way to create slaves is to drive them to poverty.

Now that we have examined Mars in his box and can relate him to so many things, we know he’s not a feather. So let’s talk about him as a possibly unaspected planet.

UNASPECTED MARS

Unaspected planets are usually unaware of the energy they put out because they aren’t bouncing off anything else. There’s no support, no feedback, no opposition. Mars is unconcerned that he may be called on to perform more or less than any other planet, because he doesn’t compare himself to them. He’s blissfully unaware of his attractiveness, although everyone around him recognizes it instantly. With those traits, Mars in Capricorn is a handsome man who walks into the room and does not notice that every head has turned his way. He has the ability to achieve great things because he isn’t wasting energy squabbling with opponents, or comparing himself to what anyone else is doing. He’s doing his own thing, and he’s very good at it.

An unaspected planet has a restlessness, a hunger to satisfy that is like the proverbial carrot on a stick. It keeps him always seeking, always searching and reaching for that thing which will make him feel whole. He lives with a constant preoccupation, like a Gemini kissing with one eye open, in case his real true love happens by. But this is not flirty Gemini; it’s very ambitious Mars in Capricorn. Whatever power he achieves, however much "fundage" he has at his disposal, no matter how many awards he wins, it is not enough to satisfy the hunger that burns inside. But again, he is not aware of this. It’s like an addiction that he doesn’t claim. Everyone else sees it clearly, but he does not. In the course of his life, he experiences events that show him these things about himself, and hopefully, he learns to harness his energy into the talents and abilities that are his to use. He becomes Big Business. He sells out for even more. This kind of power is portrayed by Mickey Rourke’s character, John, in the movie 9 ½ Weeks, who had a career in arbitrage on Wall Street. The 1987 movie Wall Street is an excellent example of Capricorn Mar's evil twin. So is the 2010 documentary Inside Job, about what happened on Wall Street and in the White House that led to our current real-life economic crisis. If you haven't seen it, you should.

 So maybe Capricorn Mars on December 21, 2012 is unaspected, maybe he’s not. That’s why hindsight is 20/20. If we survive the day, we’ll see it clearly. Let’s hope it’s not too late.

I said earlier that Mars deserved further examination because he is in league with two other powerful planet combinations, all linked by mutual reception. Below, we’ll take a look at these hard hitters.

MUTUAL RECEPTION OF MARS, SATURN AND PLUTO

I have always said that there are three planets that I never like to see squaring off with each other, and they are Mars, Saturn, and Pluto. That’s insidious energy. It’s like a slithering chain of cancerous cells. I once had a client whose Mars, Saturn and Pluto had come to his midheaven by progression. I thought I was telling him something he didn’t know when I predicted the most dangerous year of his life. He was already aware that he would soon be leaving for Afghanistan.

That’s the kind of energy that Mars, Saturn and Pluto have together. Let’s look at them individually. We’ve already examined Mars, so let’s peek at Saturn in Scorpio, but don’t get too close or reach through the cage.

SATURN IN SCORPIO
Masters of the Universe

 Saturn has ambition, drive, a need for success, and the determination to earn it. He is a master of punctuality and patience but can also be a victim of delay and depression. He is cautious, materialistic, laborious and cynical. He constricts and limits us. He is the planet of maturity and growing old, broken bones, decline and poor health, old age and solitude, despair and death.

He is the ruler of Capricorn, so you are familiar with his ability and performance in business. Saturn is the senior partner, the mentor, the comptroller, the judge, the president, and the authority with the most power in any situation. He-Who-Calls-the-Shots dictates to minions. In Scorpio, he is a force to be reckoned with. He rewards effort and decides punishment for infringement, laziness, rebellion and withdrawal. A strong Saturn accuses others of laziness because he, himself, is an over-achiever who cannot relax. e excels in business and finances, especially those related to Pluto during the time he is the CEO of Scorpio: the stock market, insurance, ponzi schemes, crime and the robbery of treasuries and rape of money markets, banking and credit, oil, gold, precious metals, diamonds, mines, agriculture, nuclear energy, waste management, surgical equipment, medical research, the underworld, undertaking, and death. He is shrewd in business, devious and dangerous, and his ambition is fed by a desire for the control that money bestows. He’s making a killing, no pun intended. He would walk over his own grandmother, or refuse her life-saving medical care, if it would bring him more wealth and power. He’s a Plutocrat, a dictator by virtue of extreme wealth. He knows how to party and enjoys a lavish lifestyle.

Deregulated, he's in a position of absolute power, and he’s manipulative and secretive. He directs things from behind the scenes. Pulls Strings. Buys people off, or has them disappear. His best character traits are betrayal, cruelty, jealousy, and vengeance. He can be intense, obsessive and ruthless, which makes him a formidable opponent, and excellent detective, or spy. He could be a secret organization, or hiding in Homeland Security, the FBI, CIA, NSA, White House, Supreme Court, or perhaps the Pentagon, since Mars (our military) is in a deal with the devil there.

Saturn in Scorpio is an immovable object combined with an irresistible force. That is a lot of power. That could trigger major quakes in the earth’s crust, as well as the economy.

 Saturn is responsibility, and Scorpio represents "other people’s money." Remember that Saturn is the Lord of Cold. He freezes whatever he touches. He has a heart of ice. If you kick him there, you could break your foot. He sticks to business and will not discuss his personal life under any circumstances, if he even has one. He watches silently, manipulating from afar like an omniscient god. He hates being wrong and will not admit it when he is. Once he decides to make his move, he will strike the jugular with the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel.

In the Capricorn Ingress chart of December 21, 2012 (a fancy term for when the sun reaches the Winter Solstice, or zero degrees of Capricorn), Saturn is in the 8th house of "other people’s money." This consists of "pooled" finances such as community property, 401K’s, insurance, stocks and investments, gambling, lotteries, unemployment, social security, taxes, government assistance, public debt, and financial relations with foreign countries. Witness the recent and current insurance reforms, financial regulatory reform, government deficit, and global debt crisis. It’s also the ill-gotten gains of crimes such as the robbery of retirement and pension funds, ponzi schemes, junk bonds, accounting fraud and so on.

Saturn in this particular chart rules over the 11th house, where the local government, the House of Representatives, Congress, and cronies and allies are located. It shows business profits, wages, and the U.S. Treasury. If that’s not enough to convince us that Big Business has Big Brother in his back pocket, then look to the 12th house, which due to interceptions in the chart, is also under Saturn’s domain. The 12th house is the house of seclusion, of things that go on behind the scenes and in secret. It’s clandestine meetings, treason, subversion, and treachery. Here's the chart again.



Capricorn Ingress

2012 Winter Solstice

December 21, 2012

11:12 AM GMT

Greenwich, England

The United States of America

July 4, 1776

02:14 AM LMT

Philadelphia. PA

"The Uranus Rising Chart"



U.S. Uranus Rising chart inside,

2012 Winter Solstice chart outside.



The true birth chart of the United States is debatable. I think most astrologers believe the Sibly chart to be more historically accurate (the signing of the Declaration of Independence), while others prefer a chart where Uranus is rising (being the planet of independence, freedom, liberty and justice for all). I say if the chart works, use it. We’ll look at both.

 In the chart of the birth of the United States of America, July 4th, 1776, at 2:14 a.m. LMT in Philadelphia, PA, (which is the Uranus-rising chart pictured above), the Saturn we've been talking about, He-Who-Calls-the-Shots, is transiting the sixth house of food, health, and nutrition. Our food supply might be limited, or there might be a risk of disease. Our medications may be contaminated.

This is the house of service and servants, duty, and obligations. It’s work and the labor force. It’s middle-class and the blue-collar man. People are stuck in jobs they cannot afford to quit, no longer able to make ends meet. Notice that Saturn rules the 8th house of Other People’s Money, and the 9th of immigration and foreign entanglements. Remember the mantra for this mutual reception: the surest way to create slaves is to drive them to poverty.

 Capricorn Mars, which we examined earlier, in the ninth house of foreign entanglements, imports / exports, immigration, fair trade agreements, NAFTA, and the hoodwinking of America with the Right to Work law, is in conjunction with the natal American Pluto. Mars and Pluto are the joint rulers of Scorpio, which again, is in the 6th house, and intercepted, and therefore, even more intertwined. Together, they are like flashing arrows demanding we point our attention there. The things found in them will be hard to work out. Our government allowed our corporations to farm our jobs out to foreign lands, and we let immigrants take those we found distasteful, and now we have an employment crisis as shown by the sixth house, where Saturn is skulking around.

INTERCEPTED HOUSES

Intercepted houses are like flashing neon arrows demanding attention to areas that will prove to be important to the total scenario. In the U.S. chart, the sixth house, just described above, and the twelfth house of secrets, sorrows, and self-undoing, are intercepted. The twelfth house is where secret things are hidden, like enemies, and the places where they lie in wait. It’s the house of seclusion, of things that go on behind the scenes and in secret. It’s clandestine meetings, treason, subversion, and treachery. It shows secret rendezvous, and places that are normally hidden away and unseen, like abbeys, monasteries, convents, and caves. It is a place of confinement, convalescing and rehabilitation, jails, hospitals, asylums, rehab, nursing homes and hospices. It’s radio stations, the media that is heard, but not seen. It is places of vast size, such as mountains, oceans, and space, where there is plenty of room to hide. It is our own subconscious minds, and the universal collective subconscious we all share.

Ruthless Saturn in Scorpio and the ambitious Mars in Capricorn, which may be unaspected, are working together in harmony and mutual support. That worries me. That appears to be more back-scratching, back-slapping, high five-ing between the new robber barons: politicians, insurance companies, bankers, mortgage brokers and Wall Street.

Pluto in Capricorn is the third planet in this three-way reception and blatant display of financial terrorism. Let’s feel around in his box and see what role he plays in the Winter Solstice of 2012.

IN PLUTO’S BOX:

RADICAL GLOBAL TRANSFORMATION and

THE NEW WORLD ORDER

Combine the fire of Mars and the cold dank well that is Pluto, and you get long dark nights of the soul. It is our Dark Side, the deepest part of our psyches. Where Pluto resides in a natal chart, he plants a seed of dissatisfaction, and patiently waits sometimes years for it to mature into a life-changing transformation that will alter our personal landscape forever. He may be small, but he is mighty. He is an atom waiting to split. Pluto is intense, deep andabsolutely powerful. He rules dark subjects such as crime, dictators, fascism, oligarchies, magic, the esoteric, and the occult. Sex, too, but I really don’t think sex has much to do with this, other than the bad behavior of some of our so-called leaders.

Pluto rules power and its abuse. If you have a dominant Pluto in your chart, you’ll find that people often challenge, and even assault you, for no reason that you can discern. Unless your Pluto is unaspected, making you blissfully unaware, it is, of course, your own energy being reflected back at you.

Combine Scorpio’s co-rulers—the razor sharp edge of Mars with the laser precision of Pluto—and you get either a talented surgeon or skilled butcher. Wherever Pluto moves through a chart, he either transforms or eliminates. He is the undertaker, terminator, Angel of Death, Grim Reaper, and Hades. He removes the outworn from our lives and replaces it with something new. He instigates transformation. As the phoenix, he is always reborn.

 From the myth of Hades and Persephone, we understand how Pluto is the ruler of crime and the underworld, of rape and renewal. Persephone’s mother, Demeter, inflicted winter upon the world until Hades, who had abducted and raped her daughter, agreed to return her. But Persephone had partaken of the pomegranate while in Hades’ lair (maybe the seeds of dissatisfaction?), and was forced to remain with him for as many months in a year as the number of seeds she had eaten. This is a good myth with which to familiarize yourself before the Winter Solstice.

Pluto insists we change and reform, die and be born again. He moves between extremes, depending on our degree of resistance. He is lord of a lot of "re-" words: reincarnation, restoration, recycle—I was going to quote Thesaurus dot com, but the list grew too long.

 If we go quietly, if we willingly let go of the things Pluto wants from us, then he will apply slow, subtle pressure to make the changes, and we will acquiesce, barely realizing what has happened until it is over. This pressure is similar to that which changes coal to diamonds or dinosaurs to oil. The thing that has been taken from us is still gone, and will be forever, but the trauma is less. And something is left to us in place of our loss. It is the closing of one door and the opening of the next.

Resisting the changes Pluto demands from us will cause us to experience his other extreme. This side is more akin to atomic, nuclear, or volcanic power. Resistance results in Pluto ripping the rug out from under us, leaving us a helpless, defenseless, quivering pile of grief. He has domain over plagues, AIDS, cancer and auto-immune diseases. He is the lord of earthquakes, and the sign he occupies at this writing, Capricorn, is an earth sign.

MONEY

Money it's a hit

Don't give me that do-goody good bullshit
I'm in the hi-fidelity first class traveling set
And I think I need a Lear jet

Money it's a crime
Share it fairly but don't take a slice of my pie
Money so they say
Is the root of all evil today
But if you ask for a rise

It's no surprise

That they're giving none away

~ Pink Floyd

Dark Side of the Moon

Another thing in Pluto’s box is "Other People’s Money." Scorpio, Pluto, and the Eighth House share the same energy and characteristics; the planet shows what, the sign shows how, and the house shows where. In one method of examining charts, called "stepping," Pluto’s natural home is the eighth house, which is the second house of money from the seventh house of Others. This includes community property, taxes, insurance, 401K’s, pensions, social security, stocks, investments, gambling, lotteries, and the Federal Reserve, which is no more "federal" than FedEx.

The Federal Reserve was created by a group of private bankers in November of 1910, in a secret meeting that included some of the wealthiest men of the world, and a certain Nelson AldRICH, the Republican Senator from Rhode Island. No, not Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, but isn't that an interesting similarity of names? Worth looking into, I thought.

 This handful of men owned approximately one-sixth of the world’s wealth, and membership was limited to those who inherited it. They met to discuss the Panic of 1907, after which The People were opposed to the big city banking system they felt caused financial upheavals through their manipulations. They demanded reform. The National Monetary Commission, under Senator Nelson Aldrich, right, was charged with writing the reform bill. On December 23, 1913 (the day after the Winter Solstice), President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law.

 1913 was a year that both began and ended with nebulous Neptune at the apex of a yod. Neptune surrounds the Reserve with a thick atmosphere of mystery. Little is known or understood about it, and it’s even harder to grasp because Neptune rules the twelfth house of secrets and things that are hidden. Membership, or "shareholders" of the Federal Reserve remain a closely guarded secret to this day, in true Scorpio fashion, and Sheeple seem to have little interest in knowing anything about it. It flies under the radar, much the same as the IRS makes its own rules.

"Republicans approve of the American farmer, but they are willing to help him go broke. They stand four-square for the American home--but not for housing. They are strong for labor--but they are stronger for restricting labor's rights. They favor minimum wage--the smaller the minimum wage the better. They endorse educational opportunity for all--but they won't spend money for teachers or for schools. They think modern medical care and hospitals are fine--for people who can afford them. They consider electrical power a great blessing--but only when the private power companies get their rake-off. They think American standard of living is a fine thing--so long as it doesn't spread to all the people. And they admire the Government of the United States so much that they would like to buy it."

~ Harry S. Truman



The Sibly Chart for the United States of America on the inside wheel,

the 2012 Winter Solstice Chart on the outside wheel.



In the Sibly Chart for the U.S., Pluto resides in the second house of money and possessions, in the sign of Capricorn, where it returns every 248 years or so, meaning that Pluto is in the same sign now that it was in during the American Revolution, and not coincidentally, the Boston Tea Party.

Pluto was discovered in February of 1930, when the world was in a big mess. He was exactly conjunct Mars in the chart of the Federal Reserve on October 29, 1929, also known as Black Tuesday, or the Wall Street Crash. A small group of robber barons became fabulously wealthy, and the rest of the world suffered through the Great Depression.

 Politically, fascism was taking hold in Europe. A nation of demagogues almost annihilated an entire race. Then the United States developed the atomic bomb that could annihilate our entire civilization. Pluto is also lord over propaganda, which was thick as a ticker tape parade, especially during the World Wars, I and II. And how could we forget the "duck and cover" campaign that our government assured us was a way to survive a nuclear blast? Instead of listening to our government, we should have made our government listen to us. Now we need a revolution.

PLUTO IN CAPRICORN

When Pluto is in Capricorn, governments seize autocratic power in the name of security. The rationalization they use to authorize this power grab is terror. Pluto was in Sagittarius, the sign of foreigners and religious fanaticism at the time of 9/11.

When Homeland Security took power on March 1, 2003, Pluto opposed Saturn. When Uranus squares Pluto beginning in 2011, people who value privacy will begin to rebel against this surveillance and control. Big Brother watches everywhere. How long before he sees all? The body-scanning machines in airports are a perfect example of the authority of Capricorn combined with the personal invasion of Pluto. This is only the beginning.

Now and throughout 2012, just as in 1929 when the stock market crashed, a select group of The Fabulously Wealthy secretly wield an enormously powerful influence. Democracy no longer exists. Pluto in Capricorn takes over the second house of money, valuables and possessions. He takes over the banks. The spin doctors pacify and lull us into doing nothing against this tiny Goliath.

Pluto was conjunct the U.S. ascendant on October 19, 1987 when the stock market lost a record 508 points in one day. He was also conjunct the ascendant on December 8, 1987, when the Cold War ended and the United States stood as the only remaining Super Power. With Pluto in Capricorn, the structure of business will undergo reform. Those in banks, credit institutions, insurance, and corporations are making a money grab. If history repeats itself, another Depression will follow, eventually The People will revolt, some crooked Senator will go into a meeting with the Federal Reserve, and out will pop a reform bill that will once again leave a few people with more money than God. Then the president will sign it. Somewhere in there we could see World War III.

Filtered through the sign of Capricorn, Pluto will transform the way we do business. He will likely bring on, as already evidenced, a global collapse of the economy, and the necessity to start from scratch. We are already in a financial depression, but our government refuses to acknowledge how much trouble we are in. It’s the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. Their theory is that if they lie about it repeatedly, they will be believed, and maybe even win a Nobel Prize.

Many of the world’s nations will lose their shirts in this global transformation. Those who cannot make the transformation quickly enough will collapse and cease to exist, or be absorbed and recycled. We may somehow obtain new leaders with the Capricorn qualities of stability, dependability, and responsibility, but they will be outnumbered by the ruthlessly ambitious. The older and more traditional the institution, the more likely it is to succumb to the pressure. Older people may come into their power after a long time of waiting, but at the same time, the first wave of Baby Boomers are beginning to pass away, and old traditions will fade with them.

Not that long ago, as history shows, man measured his wealth by his survival—by his ability to feed, shelter and clothe his family, by good health and a long life. Religious and political freedom and the occasional glass of mead were bonuses. Today, we define security in terms of our possessions, including status symbols--the right shoes, the right phone, the right car--that have no relationship to our survival at all. We perceive wealth in an increasingly shallow way.

Pluto often brings us situations that contain issues of power and survival where we have to locate the deep inner strength we possess and rise to the occasion. This response calls co-ruler Mars to action, and these situations become the trials by fire through which Scorpio transforms.

Whichever area of our lives Pluto transits, it is a far-reaching, life-changing experience. Scorpio represents the eagle, the phoenix, and the snake. When we are consumed by hate, envy, jealousy, and despair, we crawl on our bellies. Vengeance shall be ours. But just as the protagonists of two recent Hollywood movies, The Source Code and The Adjustment Bureau, battled against Plutonian themes, we fight the all-powerful in order to rise from the ashes again. When we find our inner strength and step up to the plate, we soar as an eagle. The choice is ours.

PLUTO THROUGHOUT HISTORY

Time is not linear; it's cyclical. Those who do not learn the lessons of the past
are doomed to repeat it.

The last time Pluto was in Capricorn, the global population was divided into the "Haves" and "Have Nots." Marie Antoinette suggested that the starving peasants of France should eat cake, and sparked the French Revolution and the loss of her head. The Americans also revolted against England. The Pilgrims are at the other extreme in the class distinctions of Pluto in Capricorn. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin (both astrologers) declared in the Constitution of the United States that all men were created equal, and have the God-given right to pursue happiness. Of course, we know now that it did not include women or slaves, but the idea was a good one, especially to have come from austere Pilgrims who not long before had worn the stiff upper lip of the British. To them the pursuit of happiness was a radical idea.

Let’s look back at the times that Pluto has been in Capricorn during the last two thousand years, beginning with:

42 AD to 60 AD

 St. Peter builds the first Catholic church in Rome. First Pope in Rome. Roman Conquest of Britain. Buddism is introduced to China. The long Roman conquest of Britain begins. Emperor Claudius expels the Jews from Rome and secures a senatorial decree that gives jurisdiction in financial cases to imperial procurators. The Chinese invent paper.

287 AD to 305 AD

Constantine and Galerius jointly rule the Roman Empire. Emperor Diocletian issues his Edict on Maximum Prices. Instead of halting rampant inflation and stabilizing the economy, inflation surges because it floods the economy with new coinage and sets the price limits too low.

532 AD to 550 AD

The Anno Domini calendar comes into use. The Code of Civil Law is published by Emperor Justinian. Krakatoa erupts in Indonesia and causes several years of world climate change. Plague kills over 100,000 in Constantinople and up to two million in the rest of the Empire. Hindu mathematicians invent the number zero.

778 AD to 795 AD

The Holy Roman Empire is established and rules Europe for a thousand years. The Vikings begin plundering England. Charlemagne begins a campaign against the Moors in Spain. The Byzantines defeat an Arab army near Constantinople for the last time, fixing its borders in eastern Asia Minor for the next two hundred years. Hisham I, begins a jihad against principalities in northern Spain and southern France.

1269 AD to 1286 AD

 Henry III becomes the Holy Roman Emperor. Christianity divides forever into Western Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. The world's first paper money is produced in China. The first elected English parliament meets at Westminster, where The First Statute of Westminster is passed, ensuring equal treatment of rich and poor, and free and fair elections.

In Vienna Jews are forced to wear cone-shaped headdresses, in addition to the yellow stars they already wear. Edward I of England conquers Wales. The Archbishop of Canterbury orders the closure of all synagogues in London and forbids Jewish doctors from treating non-Jews.

Phillip III of France causes a mass migration of Jews by outlawing them from living in small villages and rural localities. Louis IX of France orders all Jews found in public without an identifying yellow badge to be fined ten livres. Rudolph I of Germany declares all Jews "serfs of the Treasury," negating all their political freedom.

 Marco Polo reaches Kublai Khan's eastern capital, then reaches what is now Beijing. He reports back of paper currency, asbestos, coal, and other inventions virtually unknown in Europe which will transform the world forever. Conradin, the last legitimate male heir of the Hohenstaufen dynasty of Holy Roman Emperors, is executed. The Summa Theologica, the basis of all Catholic theological teaching is completed by Thomas Aquinas. The Portugese destroy the last Moorish community in Portugal. The Catholic Church reforms the process of electing the pope. The Fall of Acre marks the end of The Crusades.

1515 AD to 1532 AD

 The Great Explorers: Ponce de Leon becomes the first to reach Florida. Balboa reaches the Pacific Ocean. Portuguese Jorge Alvarez becomes the first European to reach China. Magellan is the first to circumnavigate the World. Trade begins between China and Europe. Cortez lands in Mexico and destroys the Aztec Empire. A pandemic begins to spread through South America, killing off most of the population. Verrazzano explores the North American coast between South Carolina and Newfoundland. The world is completely transformed by these events.

 Leo X begins raising massive sums of money to rebuild St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The extravagance of it is a key factor that leads Martin Luther to initiate the Reformation. Pope Paul III comes to rule. He initiates institutional reforms, and addresses rampant corruption. The Protestant Reformation begins in Germany. Two years later it begins in Switzerland. Religion is transformed. The Slave Trade begins. Europe exports African slaves to the Americas.

 The German Peasants' War leads to the deaths of a hundred thousand people. It is Europe's largest, most widespread and popular uprising until the French Revolution. Babur invades northern India, becoming the Moghul emperor of India. Incredibly, the Moghul Empire lasts until 1857. The Bubonic Plague breaks out in England. Henry VIII is recognized as the supreme head of the Church of England. Three years later after almost a thousand years under papal authority, the English Church separates from Rome. Religious power is transformed again.

1762 to 1777

 Catherine the Great begins her rule as Czarina of Russia. Six-year old Mozart begins touring Europe. Great Britain emerges from The Seven Years' War to become the greatest Empire the world has ever seen. Britain imposes the Stamp Act on the American colonists. The Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party take place. First Continental Congress drafts the "Declaration of Rights and Grievances." The American Revolution begins.

Click this link to go to December 21, 2012: Armageddon or Global Enlightenment? (Part 2)

Click this Link to go to We The People (Part 3)