Reset

It’s not everyday that you can say over the past 14 days the world has utterly changed. But since Thanksgiving, it has.

Washington has begun thawing its decades-long glacially icy relationship with Tehran, coming to terms with Iran over its potential nuclear capabilities with a “mutually defined (uranium) enrichment program,” ending nearly forty years of animosity following the U.S. hostage crisis in 1979.

Pope Francis called global capitalism “tyranny,” exhorting his followers and his church to commit more forcefully for economic justice for the poor, and saying no to the idolatry of money.

And yesterday, the world mourned the passing of Nelson Mandela. Not just a man or a national leader, but a person who was and will be a powerful global symbol of resistance against oppression: the extreme racist system of South African apartheid.

With these three events, we memorialize not only Nelson Mandela, but the world we knew in the late 1970s and 1980s. This era began when President Jimmy Carter left office after serving only one term, having been scorched at the polls for his handling of the economy and the Iran hostage crisis. Ronald Wilson Reagan became president with help from the subversion of an “October Surprise” by Jimmy Carter to free the hostages held in Tehran prior to 1980 presidential election, summarized this way:

Allegations surfaced that William Casey, director of the Reagan campaign, and some CIA operatives, secretly met with Iranian officials in Europe to arrange for the hostages’ release, but not until after the election. If true, some observers aver, dealing with a hostile foreign government to achieve a domestic administration’s defeat would have been grounds for charges of treason. Reagan won the election, partly because of the failure of the Carter administration to bring the hostages home. Within minutes of Reagan’s inauguration, the hostages were released.

The 1980s brought awareness of apartheid’s oppression and many of us joined in a mounting global chorus calling for economic sanctions against the South African government, pressuring them to free Nelson Mandela. It was also then that America accelerated its pursuit of unfettered capitalism and consumption started by Reagan’s “Morning in America.” The Ayatollah Khomeini and Tehran became America’s bete-noir, part of the “Axis of Evil.”

Fast forward to today: America’s tensions with Iran coming to a slowdown will inevitably re-draw the map of our relationships with the Middle East and especially Israel. The Pope’s anti-capitalism exhortation calls for a new spiritual awakening to help those less fortunate worldwide. This is the antithesis of Morning in America, and is already having ripple affects amongst hard-right politicians in the U.S., who would rather that we continue personifying and enriching corporations, allowing only a select few private individuals to hold on to most, if not all, of the world’s wealth.

You might say that Nelson Mandela, at the time of his passing, saw not only how his country had changed for the better, but how the world he knew when released from prison thirty years ago is now moving. Forward.

When writing for Planet Waves about art, history, culture and politics, I need first to absorb the world’s events in my heart. With these last few weeks, current events have left me both full and speechless. Yes, I know, there will be the changes in the old tired paradigms. Just like Nelson Mandela catalyzed with that recalcitrant South African government and horrible apartheid system a few short decades ago. We have gone through a very big passage thirty years later and in a span of only 14 days. The world we have known is indeed different. Changing. A pendulum has swung. Control-Alt-Delete. Reset.

Nelson could let go, smiling.

4 thoughts on “Reset”

  1. I feel more positive than ever that the world will be a better place after reading this article. Thank you Fe.

    I am looking forward to the continuation of social and economic reforms that better reflect the realities of nature and humanity.

    Pope Francis witnessed the damage caused by the austerity ideology in Argentina in the early 00s, and he is perfectly positioned to speak out for an economic alternative.

    I’m also relieved about the situation in Iran. Thank goodness Kerry is secretary of state…

    While South Africa still has some serious problems (such as crime), Nelson Mandela’s political achievements have been nothing short of impressive. His willingness to experience the peaks and valleys of the Wheel of Fortune (ie from being a long-term prisoner for his beliefs to becoming a beloved leader) is something few people are willing to endure.

    I am also looking forward to the end of the 30-year Reaganistic counter-reformation period. This is not the first time that a reformational period got disrupted by a temporary return to the old guard (which usually happens during Neptune in Capricorn), and a definite move forward. The 16th century and the 18th-19th centuries have several examples of this historical trajectory.

    I want a world where a woman like myself can do natural sciences in peace. That is my main desire in the world, it’s the best thing for me, and I want politicians to recognize the importance of such a position.

  2. Thanks for your thoughts Fe. It is worth thinking about how the death of Nelson Mandela (and other people who leave lasting legacies when the die) changes the focus of attention from present to the past. The 30 year periods you speak about (Mandela’s imprisonment, U.S. relations with Iran) are the approximate length of a Saturn cycle from any given point and are considered “maturing” stages in a human life. Rather like a snake shedding its skin, we get to start over fresh from a new place at that time.

    I noted somewhere earlier that the transiting TNO Orcus had just stationed retrograde (a reviewing process) at 6+ Virgo and that Mandela’s MC (10th house cusp of achievement and reputation) was also at 6+ Virgo. Melanie Reinhart (see The Mt. Astrologer June/July 2013) lists “survival sense” as one of the attributes she is researching regarding the influence of Orcus. Transiting Chiron and Neptune are opposed trans. Orcus, a mythical ruler of the underworld like Pluto, who (like Pluto) has a Moon named Vanth. (Her job was to accompany the dead to the underworld which was not just a creepy place like it is now, but where all those who died had to go.) Earlier myths refers to Orcus as a “grim reaper”, a title also associated with Saturn. So here we are, talking about (reviewing) Nelson Mandela’s life which reads somewhat like a myth due to his survival ability, as he is now escorted away (by Orcus’ moon Vanth) from his mortal experience on Earth.

    Astrology’s cycles have proven their validity over and over in many lives, none more so than Saturn’s but the greater cycles, those longer than the typical life span of humans (for now anyway) require the study of history to grasp their meanings from a personal perspective. I believe the opposition between the transiting Chiron and Neptune to Mandela’s midheaven (and to transiting Orcus) will further illuminate his role in humanity’s evolution over the coming years.

    Mandela’s natal Orcus ironically was at 3+ Taurus, the discovery degree for Chiron. Melanie also says Orcus is about “renewing the vows of the soul for this life.” Doesn’t this sound like what he must have experienced when he was imprisoned for nearly a Saturn cycle? Can’t we see how Chiron’s symbolism for pain, wounding and healing influenced his natal Orcus’ renewal of his soul’s vows? Doesn’t it describe the end product of that 27 years of confinement (trans. Chiron was conjunct his natal Sun in 1990)? It is for us to understand the present “full-moon” point in the cycle between transiting Orcus and Chiron-Neptune by studying Mandela’s life and his accomplishments. All the better to understand our own soul’s vows for this life. Thank you for starting us down that path Fe.
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