When
the Molasses Levee Breaks
July 15, 2005 (with two charts)
http://cainer.com/ericfrancis/july15.html
Other people's problems, they overwhelm
my mind
They say compassion is a virtue, but I
don't have the time.
--David Byrne, Talking Heads
Dear Readers:
Last week we began our study of the
history of Saturn in Leo, in response to hundreds of questions on the subject
in recent months. I have to say, I had no clue what this transit was about
until I looked at history, copiously researched by Michele Perrin in
Based on reading my email and somewhat on
my own emotional responses to this change, I want to caution against doom and
gloom approaches to Saturn transits, or any transits. Many of the letters
coming in are pretty fearful. Some astrologers are delivering Saturn in Leo as
specifically bad news, which we could all do without. Prediction is a creative
process.
So, let's stay calm, and create. And for
astrology devotees, if you're going to find a commitment to constructive and
positive ways to work with this transit, you're going to find it on Cainer.com.
Every planet that moves in our charts
presents challenges, rewards and opportunities. But planets are not anonymous
actors with no agenda. Planets have names, and stories, and we have relationships
with them that last all our lives. If you follow astrology, you're developing
that relationship and you may want to do it as consciously as possible.
Astrology is rather different when you see a transit and you understand it in
terms of a lifelong process and a committed relationship with growth, on that
particular planet's terms. When trouble comes, it usually comes from
deliberately snubbing a process or experience we know is necessary or timely.
We bring our creativity and our
intentions to the process of every astrological event, and every other event
for that matter. Far from being helpless in the face of transits, they present
us with information and energy, which we have the opportunity to evaluate and
use.
I believe the real issue with transits
and why they are so troublesome is that most people are not so often
introspective enough to see that the process of taking over our lives comes as
a series of decisions. These decisions are based on what we feel, where we find
ourselves, and what we decide we want. We don't exactly have total control; but
we have a lot of latitude in what we decide and in how we respond to both inner
and outer circumstances. In fact, that's about all the control we have. Once we
give up that ability to notice and decide, that's a situation called being
powerless. And once we notice that, we have some power back.
Saturn is a planet that wants us to
maintain awareness and take action. Saturn says work with your limits, work
with them and work right to the edge of them. And then develop them. Saturn
demands maturity. If we really do Saturn well, we begin to personally take over
all those roles of controlling surrogate parents (inner voices of parents,
including deceased parents; spouses functioning in parental roles; 'god';
bosses acting like parents or deities; and every form of a 'should' that we
'should' or 'should not' do). Saturn on one level represents those people, and
those inner voices, which strive to control us; and on another level -- the
more important one -- it represents personal mastery.
History provides many examples of this,
though if you check your Saturn transits your life will as well. We've checked
the last four Saturn in Leo cycles, spanning nearly a century of astonishing
change in the world (1887-1889, 1916-1919, 1946-1948 and 1975-1978). The first
two cycles were covered last week, along with other introductory material, and
a proper introduction to Saturn in Leo with much background was posted a month
ago -- it's linked from last week's edition.
The most interesting pattern I noticed
was that of dams bursting. This is a good example of an astrological metaphor
at work. Think of Saturn in Cancer as a massive structure holding back a lot of
water. Cancer is a water sign and Saturn represents structures, such as a dam.
Then when Saturn goes into Leo, it releases its energy, turns into a fiery
planet, and the structure that was holding back all that emotion or energy lets
go.
Though it was not funny at the time, the
most curious of these dam bursts was the spill of 2.3 million gallons of
molasses (raw sugar syrup) when a cistern broke in
The second really interesting pattern
during Saturn in Leo is countries gaining independence, particularly small
ones. The list is really long, and I'll continue it in the two later cycles I'm
about to cover in today's column (there's a list of countries from the first
two cycles we covered last week).
The third pattern was women's rights, in
particular, voting rights, and even Susan B. Anthony had her first women's
rights congress during Saturn in Leo. In country after country, from the
Now, just to check in with tradition, I
pulled a book off my shelf this morning -- "The General Principles of
Astrology" by Aleister Crowley with Evangeline Adams. As you might expect
from an astrology book, it does not have good things to say about Saturn in
Leo, on the grounds that the hot, bright, and sanguine (blood-like) quality of
Leo would be suppressed by the structured and somewhat cool nature of Saturn.
I won't get into the gory details of
their theory, and I would note that the writers are talking about natal
astrology (a theory I still don't like because it's rather dead-end), but the
statements seems to fly in the face of everything we actually see under Saturn
in Leo. Except for one thing, and it's not a small thing: if we're not careful,
Saturn in Leo is going to harden our hearts, on a wide cultural level, and as
individual. As you'll see, the one that most of us remember, 1975-1978, was
good times for the most part. The music was incredible. There was the hope of
progress in the world. But there was a rejection of the peace and love values
of the 1960s and early 1970s as no longer cool.
And then came Reagan. And Maggie
Thatcher. And they did not come out of nowhere. And for the most part, their
ghosts and agendas still linger. And this political and social shift to the
right also followed the 1946-1948 transit of Saturn in Leo. Political shifts in
this direction are based on things like fear, overdoing the concept of
individuality, and pride. In measured doses, these are important psychological
factors. But not heaped on endlessly.
The period after the Second World War
came with a huge number of innovations in culture and technology. All that
energy that had been bogged down in the war came surging out once the war ended
-- in the
In both societies, people took advantage
of the last year of Saturn in Cancer (through Aug. 1946, the first 12 months
after the war) to stay home and make a lot of babies; there was a baby boom
that began and lasted through the 1960s (though in my mind, the "baby boom
era" ends for astrological purposes with the election of John F. Kennedy
in 1960, which begins a new mini-era or brief generation that lasts till the
Kennedy assassination).
In 1946, there were the Nuremburg trials
of Nazis. This was a truly monumental moment in world history, when the (very
nearly) whole story came out about what happened in
U-S-History.com writes, "Many
defendants who took the stand tried to put their actions in as positive a light
as possible. The majority of the defendants claimed to know little or nothing
of the existence of concentration camps, while others testified that the
concentration camps were necessary to preserve order."
I think that the most important
development to come out of the trials was the banning of what's called the
"Nuremberg Defense." A person on trial for crimes against humanity
cannot testify that they were "just following orders," which was the
primary defense used by Nazi war criminals -- a defense that was rejected by
the court. Troops are only obliged to follow lawful orders from their superior
officers. But this, of course, is tricky territory, as we're seeing in the
So with Saturn in Leo, we see some
cleanup, or at least adjudication, of the mess created with Saturn in Cancer,
which was definitely a peak phase of the atrocities of the war. Notably,
In 1946 (under Saturn in Leo), there was
the first meeting of the United Nations. Women's voting rights were granted in
Also in 1946, there were the first
drive-up teller windows, and Tupperware came on the market.
The following year, 1947, brought many
more changes that we're still living with today. The International Monetary
Fund (IMF) began to operate. The CIA was founded, as well as the Deptartment of
Defense (a carryover from the Department of War, with an innocent new name), as
well as the National Security Council and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Not only
that, GATT and the World Trade Organization were founded.
There was the first computer virus. Hmmm.
They turned out to be persistent enough. And Chuck Yeagar broke the sound
barrier -- an interesting image of a dam breaking; in this case, a kind of
imaginary dam because there is really no barrier at the speed of sound. (The
story of that first flight is recounted in "The Right Stuff" by Tom
Wolfe, which is worth reading.)
In June 1947, the first UFO was seen, and
a month later there was the
The transistor was invented; this one
invention has made every single electronic thing you see possible. The first
commercial transistorized product was a hearing aid. A transistor radio finally
hit the market in 1954, but failed; the next year, a Sony transistor radio was
a commercial success.
The transistor is an interesting Saturn
in Leo metaphor. One definition says transistors are "tiny electrical
devices that can be found in everything from radios to robots. They have two
key properties: 1) they can amplify an electrical signal and 2) they can switch
on and off, letting current through or blocking it as necessary."
They provide structure (Saturn) to energy
(Leo). And the enduring quality of the invention is 100% Saturn in Leo.
Integrated circuits are comprised largely of many transistors (today, tens of
thousands per chip or more). So the invention of the transistor persists to
this day, one of many inventions during Saturn in Leo that is utterly and
entirely ubiquitous. This is, apparently, the best time to file your patents.
We saw this with many developments in the previouis two cycles as well --
inventions that last, including George Eastman patenting roll film and the
invention of movies.
The first microwave oven came out during
the 1940s Saturn in Leo cycle (talk about something that's everywhere), and a
wave of technological developments and inventions appeared that some have
speculated were really based on back-engineering components of the recovered
alien ship at
On the list of things we know for sure is
that Jackie Robinson, the grandson of a slave, became the first black Major
League Baseball player when he took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers (go
Brooklyn!). This is another example of a dam breaking.
Let's look at Jackie's chart. It's a
beautiful example of Saturn in Leo, both natal and under transit:
Note that Jackie was born with Saturn in
Leo rising -- as strong as it can be. (Look at the left horizontal line to see
this placement.) He had Leo in the ascendant, and Saturn in Leo, and he's born
quite close to the moment of Saturn rising. It's one of the most prominent
planets in his chart. He began to play in the big leagues at the time of his
Saturn return, when Saturn came back to its natal position and close to when it
was also crossing his ascendant.
He has a thunderbolt of Aquarius to go
with all that Leo: an exact Sun/Moon conjunction in Aquarius (born at the New
Moon) as well as a Uranus-Venus conjunction. That's a lot of Aquarius and it
was certainly a given that he was going to make a unique contribution to the
world. So with Saturn in his Leo ascendant we get the image of a person with
incredible strength of character. With the Sun (ruler of Leo) in Aquarius, we
get an inventive, populist, pioneering figure who?s not afraid to be different.
It's the perfect blend of Leo and Aquarius.
Note Jupiter conjunct Pluto, the golden
spiritual thread connecting all people and all faiths, in the 11th house --
signaling a major public contribution, indeed, one rarely paralleled in the
history of civil rights. Here's a little from his biography, courtesy of the
Kansas City Public Library. It's really something amazing and speaks to the
strength of character this man possessed and set as an example for the world.
"In 1945, Robinson signed a contract
to play for a Dodgers farm team, the Montreal Royals. Many owners and
sportswriters were against this. They thought bringing blacks into the league
would destroy major league baseball.
"At first it was very difficult.
During spring training in
"Things didn't get any easier
though. The St. Louis Cardinals threatened to go on strike. Pitchers often
threw the ball directly at Robinson, base runners tried to spike him, and
people called him all sorts of bad names. He even received hate mail, death
threats, and warnings that his baby boy would be kidnapped. But, gradually, the
fans and players realized how good he was at baseball. They started coming just
to see him play."
Jackie's life did not end well. Though he
was a hero, he was not offered a coaching gig when he retired. He suffered from
diabetes, which is often about a lot of internalized anger. And he died
heartbroken after the death of his son, Jackie Jr.
Of the many developments of 1948, the
founding of the state of
One of the characteristics of
But it's an enduring kind of
polarization, as if there is energy created or harvested in the conflict. On
the political level, though, it's clear that
As somewhat important side notes, this
Saturn in Leo cycle brought the opening of Idlewild (later JFK) airport, now
one of the great portals to the New World; as well as the end of segregation in
the
Also in this cycle:
*
* Greek monarchy established
* Japanese constitution goes into effect
*
*
*
*
* Gandhi Murdered by Hindu extremist
* Congress televised for first time
* Giant meteor created crater in
I think what we need to say here is that
the world we now live in, the "Post World War II World," is
essentially a creation of Saturn in Leo. This is when the basic pattern was
cast: particularly the creation of a permanent national security
("military industrial") state (ultimately encoded in a document
called NSC 68, on April 14, 1950, with Saturn in Virgo). There was the beginning
of the Cold War and the incredible polarization that characterized the next 60
years, and which is certainly taking chilling turns as we watch live on
television today.
The Most Recent Cycle
This brings us to the latest cycle,
September 1975 through July 1978. What many of us old enough to remember will
remember about this time is the music. This was the era of the second British
Invasion, when punk rock and new wave were born and saved us from the sloth of
much of 70s hit music.
I'll get to the music in a moment. Let's
look at world history.
The Bangiao Dam tragedy in
In 1975,
This is a good example of the polarizing
power of Saturn in Leo, and its activism, as well as its potential lack of
compassion. Let's take a quick look at Anita Bryant's chart:
Notice the prominence of Leo in this
chart, particularly the ascendant to begin with; if you have Leo rising and you
don't try to stand out, something is not clicking.
But also, notice that Pluto in the first
degree of Leo square Saturn in the first degree of Taurus: that square is
called tension, and it's powerful inner tension that Anita projected at the
world, with some grand results, in evolutionary style of Pluto.
Like Jackie Robinson, Anita came into
prominence when Saturn was in her Leo ascendant. But unlike Jackie, she lacked
the steadiness and true commitment of a natal Saturn in this sign, and
unwittingly cast herself as an antihero. It is true that with all that Taurus
so high in her 10th house she was committed to values, and leadership of
values. But what ones? It does make a difference.
Yet Anita's anti-gay shenanigans did more
for the gay movement than just about anything before her. She personally
galvanized the movement, which among other things flexed its consumer muscles
for the first time and boycotted orange juice, getting her tossed as the
official spokesperson for that product.
Astrology students may note that with
retrograde Mercury in her 8th house she was a kind of delusional retrograde
spokesperson for sex, and that Uranus conjunct Venus in Taurus is rather erotic
to say the least. This is a great chart, worth a whole article or class.
In other news, the Soviet-US Apollo-Soyuz
space mission took place, commencing the era of international cooperation in
space exploration. The test mission was in 1975 and the mission continued into
the next year. So this is cusp territory rather than solid Saturn in Leo
territory.
Similarly, in 1975 "Micro-soft"
was coined by Bill Gates and became a trademark in 1976. This is further
evidence that things that start or solidify under Saturn in Leo have amazing
persistence and strength. Microsoft has in many respects taken over the world.
Other examples of things that have taken over include the development of roll
film, the Gramophone, and the invention of the motion picture -- plus the
transistor and microwave, mentioned above. And in Leo style, they all have a
fun component as well as that Saturn practical component.
In other computer news, the first laser
printer was introduced by IBM, and the first super computer for commercial
purposes was invented: Cray-1. Oh, and the Pong video game came out too.
Beginning a chilling and apparently
enduring trend, in 1976 the US Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was
okay if certain provisions were followed. On January 17, 1977, Gary Gilmore
became the first persona legally executed in the
The Irish Republican Army was outlawed in
the
And on the countries gaining independence
list, we have:
*
*
*
*
* Portuguese Timor declares independence
as
Then, newborn East Timor was invaded by
And then there was music.
Once again,
From Forest Hills, Queens (in
The energy level picked up, things
generally got a whole lot simpler musically, and polyrhythms and 20-minute
guitar solos gave way to 170-second bursts of raw thrust to which people would
"pogo" insanely. The music was spare, structured and regimented.
Bands did not just hang loose and jam. Punk rock was programmed, just like the
music today.
However, there were exceptions -- Elvis Costello
and the Clash among them, both of which bands truly offered a level of
sensitivity and that seemed to be on the level of social responsibility.
Talking Heads began releasing their psychologically sophisticated albums in
September 1977, the same year Saturday Night Fever hit. (Laurie Anderson also
put out her first single that year.) Urban American society experienced
something of a genuine polarization between the Disco and the Disco Sucks
people; many of the latter were into punk rock, which was by nature intense and
political and based on social problems -- rather than the feel-good, let's go
out and boogie music that was in reality far more popular and profitable.
There was energy in the air, whatever
flavor it came in. And that very quality is what we're missing today and have
been missing for some time. I think a lot of people are wondering where it is,
or where it went, or where it should be. But from this glance back to the 19th
and 20th centuries, it seems a given that as Saturn takes hold in Leo, we're
going to see a lot of change, some very unusual progress, and a few levees
bursting -- hopefully right were we need them the most.
But the thing is this, and it's no small
thing. "The Onion" summed it up brilliantly in its book "Our
Dumb Century," which is a set of parodies of Onion covers, most of them
fake, going back to 1900. In the edition mocking the Carter vs. Reagan election
of 1980, photos of the two candidates were put side by side. Under Carter's was
the caption, "Let's talk economy." Under Reagan's, "Kill the
bastards."
It is unfortunate that the world seems to
have steadfastly taken the second approach, and that too few of us who do
object stand up and say so. And if Saturn in Leo is not going to harden our
hearts, it?s only because we make sure something else happens as a matter of
dedication and commitment, Saturn styled. There are many compassionate people
with Saturn in Leo, and I believe most of them get that way because the work of
Saturn in their lives becomes expressing that Leo energy of generosity and love
as a lifelong devotion. They get over their fear of sensitivity.
One last comment, which leads to a
discussion we positively must bring up next week: Chiron is about to have its
Saturn return.
Catch you next week, with that chart, and
more of your questions.
See you over at Planet Waves.
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