We are about to distribute today’s landmark edition of Planet Waves, which dives into the history and the astrology of American football, including the history of brain trauma. We’ve got a fabulous tribute to Pete Seeger, who died last week — including a reading of his chart. We have my weekly horoscope devoted to the Aquarius New Moon and Venus stationing direct. And there is detailed coverage of all the inner planet retrogrades. Then — finally — the Planet Waves news team has outdone itself once again, telling you what is happening in the world. This issue is sent by email to our Planet Waves members and also appears on our two member websites. Sign up here for the only astrology magazine of its kind.
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All the little wars are practice for the big wars. In football we practice not giving a shit when men beat the shit out of each other, in fact we practice cheering for violence. Is it a natural need to go apeshit? I suppose it is on some level of human development, but it looks to me like a manufactured desire.
I think treating Mars like a vicarious thing you can do by witnessing others is dangerous. It puts the martial force of our interior humanity in the hands of another to play us like a puppet. It’s not a martial activity to sit in a seat and watch gladiators beat each other stupid. To me it seems like the vicarious violence gets so much support because there’s so many people who don’t live in their bodies. It’s a hungry ghost game where we try to feed ourselves by vicarious experience but it doesn’t really work. It’s an endless loop of boom and bust, fractured trust and manufactured violence.
When a human rides a bike as transportation and practices martial arts the martial force doesn’t have to be as loud to sense it since it’s coming from direct action and not a passive witnessing that’s anything but directly relating to Mars. Sitting in cars, sitting in front of computers and TV’s the most exiting thing probably would be watching people beat the shit out of each other. Mars gets pissed, twisted and resentful when her energies are thwarted. The empire always creates a monopoly of violence where the martial force is reserved for the police and everyone else can only do it vicariously. It doesn’t take violence to run the energy of Mars when you give it food that balances its energies.
I’ve always abhorred football, but am I the only one who can identify with a deep need for release that is powerful, direct, physical and in a group context? Maybe this is because I have an Aries Moon as well as four planets in the eleventh. I would truly like to hear what people have to say about their experience with this.
I’m female, but I identified with the movie Fight Club. (I haven’t read the book.) I’ve grown up watching films with gladiator themes my whole life and gotten adrenaline rushes from the idea of being one. There’s a fantasy here and it’s not mine alone. I see it too much in the culture for that to be true. The Hunger Games is popular with an array of ages.
Sometimes, I think people like football because they can project this need onto the players. With strong Aries energy, as in these charts, this seems like an obvious place to go. It’s fun and it’s primal. And, as Eric said somewhere, Aries energy wants to get drunk and have sex. That fits the culture around football pretty well.
Aqueryass quotes Eric, “Nessus also points to sexual injuries and traumas; it’s within reason to describe all of football as the acting-out of repressed male homosexuality.”
Yes, that is brilliant. And to everyone who lives in the United States, don’t most of us have a bit of repressed male homosexuality?
And then there is the channeling of personal power into a group activity. (Or we could call it a mass activity as Eric has used to differentiate.) The article says, Venus in Aquarius in the Super Bowl chart “illustrates the crowd-pleasing nature of the game.”
When most of us think of collaboration we don’t tend to think of the role of the physical unless we are playing what we define as a sport, constructing a building, or having sex. I wonder if looking at how else we can contribute to a group in a physical sense would help.
Dear Eric,
I’m really glad you’re applying your razor sharp astro analysis to football. I have a great antipathy for spectator sports in general, but the most for football. There’s something very unhealthy both politically and psychologically with this sport in particular, something deeply corrupt and corrupting.
Suzanne
I think football is going through a period of upheaval with Uranus in Aries (changes in the world of sports, including football), and Pluto in Capricorn (power and repulsiveness regarding football). Either football is meaningfully reformed, or America will need to pin its identity to another sport. Apparently, even rugby is less dangerous than football…
I think the reason why divisions can run deep in society is because one thing that can be perceived as a great benefit, can be seen as something abominable. Football is thus comparable to DDT, nuclear energy etc. Is it possible to see both sides of the story, while recognizing the need for a change nonetheless (I have 8th house Libra Mercury…^^)?
Personally, as a Virgo Sun, I am repelled by sports that people can only do for a few years. Ballet and football are two sports the body can only do during the peak of youth.
And yet…Queen Elizabeth took part in Renaissance dances even at an old age, and in the world of martial arts, it is possible to perform with intensity at the age of 70 or 80.
It is possible to find sports activities that people can enjoy in the long run.
Yes, I am 25, but I look long-term as much as possible (this is perhaps the consequence of living with parents in their 60s, and living in a neighborhood where I encounter people of all ages, especially middle-aged people).
In a well-known, yet poorly written (and thrice mis-translated) collection of mythological tales, a fellow named Yeshua ben Yosef throws the money merchants out of the local cult HQ which is located in a dusty but major urban center. This tale illustrates the fact that commerce and religion have been tied together quite likely since the dawn of agriculture. And sadly the mythic structures that have survived from these days until our time (as preserved in said collection of mythological tales and bad history) have continually moved away from the direct experience of the Great Mystery, and towards an essentially empty experience of relationship to the primal forces of existence.
Today in America we have a populace primarily identified with a spiritual myth regarding the singular divinity of Yeshua ben Yosef, which excludes all other humans from participating in the depth of personal experience his actual practices and teachings may have offered. Instead, the followers of this cult are offered no genuine connection to their own source, and less understanding of the need for genuine ceremony to demarcate the natural transitions of life as a human being. Within this spiritual vacuum many substitutions coalesce to take the place of the quality of conscious living that is being called for here.
We can look at the institution of football and offer genuine criticism, but for me the NFL is a zit on the skin which indicates the presence of a deeper toxicity in the body of our culture.
While doing research for the NFL article, it occurred to me to look up Roman gladiators on wikipedia. Talk about history repeating itself. “Gladiators offered spectators an example of Rome’s martial ethics, and in fighting or dying well, they could inspire admiration and popular acclaim. They were celebrated in high and low art, and their value as entertainers was commemorated in precious and commonplace objects throughout the Roman world.”
Whether it’s a projection of some value not being filled or a cult-like obsession and glorification of violence, it all comes down to something sick in human history. Something that we are still running from. I have been hoping for years that this Uranus/Pluto era will bring us to a new phase of living, that some revolution will sweep through the world.
I was discussing the NFL article with my father yesterday, and he mentioned that if I watch the Super Bowl, to keep my eye on Wes Welker, a Denver Bronco. He has sustained two concussions already this season. Apparently the NFL’s answer to this is to put extra padding in his helmet. I’m sure that getting hit full force by a 300+ pound linebacker won’t do any damage to his already damaged brain. Sort of like being thrown in an arena with a lion.
There has been some backlash about the super bowl-human trafficking connection. All i can say is, echoing Hillary Clinton, “What difference does it make?” Human trafficking happening AT ALL, at any time, is the problem. Here’s the lowdown from people who have been working this thing for a long time: http://www.polarisproject.org/media-center/polaris-project-in-the-news/951-nbc-news-super-bowl-surge-in-sex-trafficking-maybe-not-but-issue-grabs-the-spotlight .
I’m surrounded by sports world in my daily life (and loves). But I’m not myself a fan or interested. I think sports spectatorship fulfills an astoundingly deep need, or they wouldn’t be so valued; people wouldn’t trade their money and energy so eagerly if they didn’t really need it to be filled. The self-projection and displacement of identity is staggering. For many it functions like an addiction, and it’s one I indirectly profit from. Follow the money; the amounts involved are the reasons the risks are deemed acceptable and the reason for resistance to change. There are what i’d call legit needs for social unity, showing off prowess, enjoying physical strength, working as a team, etc., that are being filled. The question becomes how to respond to that need in a way that doesn’t cause so much damage. as an amateur i face injury risks all the time, fully conscious and by choice. i’m infuriated whenever someone has to choose between their health and making a living. i know well pros make more than a living, but in some ways they’re like the guys on the oil rigs or coal mines–it’s damn good money, and they tell themselves it weighs true against the risks.
Fe and Carrie: Thank you for bringing up a very important subject. The power elite’s unconscionable exploitation of human beings extends beyond sacrificing the health and longevity of the gladiators on the field.
Hey Eric,
Add this to the sex part of the sex and violence:
http://elitedaily.com/news/world/the-ugly-truth-behind-the-super-bowl-and-sex-trafficking/
I feel fortunate to have had parents who didn’t find watching football entertaining, because it is so violent. That made perfect sense to me as a child. I was also fortunate that I attended a school system that to this day does not have football teams. I’m thankful I was never compelled to find anything likable about football. I hope that Uranus squaring Pluto will continue to let light reveal football’s dark secrets.
“Nessus also points to sexual injuries and traumas; it’s within reason to describe all of football as the acting-out of repressed male homosexuality. Brilliant Eric! I can’t wait to drop that bomb at my Superbowl Testosterone Fest! Will Mars retrograde evoke an epiphany for the world to wake up from their stupor and realize that there is more to life than blood, guts and violence. I may have to look into the “Mars Effect” for hope.
According to Yahoo News, Joe Namath too has spoken out about the health issues he has suffered as consequences of his long & illustrious football career.
I’ve seen football, & also the Canadian sport of hockey, which includes many fights & injries, including serious head injuries, as gladatorial entertainment – an opiate of sorts – which somehow, as noted by others here, gives millions of people some kind of vicarious experience, & a sense of “we” – as though the NFL, the CFL, & the NHL, cared about anything more than their dollars.
Beautiful edition, Eric. I’m no football fan, although many of my family members are. I’ve always thought it simply orchestrated violence, which, obviously, turns people on. Sitting in the bleachers cheering for your side — like joining a group with a picket, supporting your oh-so-vital position — puts focus on amping, runaway, enthusiastic energy: it gets sexual quick. No surprise to see Mars buying the drinks.
I was glad Obama said he wouldn’t let his son play. That took a bit of nerve and got a lot of attention. This topic of cruel physical consequence is coming around, finally.
As for Pete, I loved him. That’s about it. Loved him, from his Commie underpinnings to his pivotal place in the resurgence of folk music in the 60s — me and my sisters banging out If I Had A Hammer and Where Have All The Flowers Gone on my little Stella, an early version of the girl-band in three-part harmony — to his constant quiet activism and dedicated citizenship. We are all diminished by his passing; we are all blessed by what he left behind.
Kosmic Mind:
Only in America can we turn a sport into a religion and religion into an industry. Everyone gets chewed up through similar abbatoir machines.
BTW, we have been seeing a number of posts about the spike in sex trafficking in Super Bowl cities the week before the game. Add another group — women and children — to the mixing machine.
Len: You have it right. It is a “recycling” and symbolic elevation of corporate values promoting not only the competitive, but the oppressive and the crushing impulses as well.
How many corporations use football analogies to motivate their forces to defeat their competition? How many in defense use football analogies to frame the need to violently overcome an enemy?
Its very crazy making when you think about this great pastime, buzzing endlessly like audio-visual wallpaper on our TV screens. Its a nursery for our most terrible and terrifyingly bullying instincts. And everyone tunes in because that Super Bowl broadcast has Madison Avenue’s best commercials.
Apologies if this was mentioned in the article (which I have not read), but Frontline had a really interesting piece about the NFL and concussions last fall. I think it is re-airing at the moment on some PBS stations, and here is a link to it as well:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/league-of-denial/
Bread and circuses indeed, Fe. I really resonate with the comparison of football with a religious cult. There’s a strong (and obvious) similarity between religious and football fanaticism. Both offer a cathartic outlet and release of pent up and suppressed psychic debris. But the result isn’t at all therapeutic. Like a drug, these games (much like weekly church goers) provide an artificial experience that only feels like the real thing. I suppose in many ways, those devotees of the church of football are vicariously living out some experience they’re denied in their everyday lives.
I wonder what more we could be doing with our time and passion as a society? Imagine all the energy funneled into football games going instead toward the betterment of the world, self-education and directed political activism. It would be a much different place, that’s for sure.
Thank you, Fe. And thanks to Eric and his team for spotlighting some of the truth behind what happens when the corporate elite exploit pain for profit and power. Yes, history has seen this proliferation of profanity before, and the inevitable consequences are recorded in history as well.
Most of all, thank you for for providing the saving grace of balance in how you record the sacred nature of Pete Seeger’s contributions to humanity, as well as the transcendental nature of his well-lived life in a more righteous arena of endeavor. The photo of his banjo says it all.
It is my earnest wish that those who read here will support and join with Planet waves in surrounding the world with true love (as opposed to the exploitation of love found in beer and soft drink commercials).
I think this piece signifies the fact that society is becoming more aware of issues, the question is will society listen?
Football was one of my favorite sports to watch up until just recently, and after discovering this the more I realized that football may be in deep trouble.
You know Eric, I worry! Here’s why: Once upon a time, decades ago, when I attended my local church missionary society, I was less savvy than today, yet still pretty switched on. Even in my early 20s it was apparent to me just how many suckers believed they were ‘contributing to missions’ simply because they embraced a theological language game and placed some cash in the offertory..
What’s wrong with that? Armchair supporters of mission, sat within comfortable little consumerist lifestyles and no direct action, or lateral/critical thinking in evidence. They pay their dues and appease their conscience; they abdicate responsibility to ‘God in the sky’ and some local representative.. ALL anaesthetic!
I worry because whenever aware people with connections sound the clarion, the so-called enlightened spectators whoop and cheer and say ‘jolly good show’ What the fuck do they DO? PRAY that some sky-bound entity will ante up and do some work FOR them?
I see your amazing horoscope work imbibed joyfully, week in week out, by the good folks of this blog.. Look man, no disrespect, but they are being nourished but how are people mobilising in this political context we live in? How are they getting involved in their localities to work for change?
You bust your balls every week with cutting edge news coverage and yet we see so much personal response that merely reflects a disengaged spirituality. It would be great to see people joining the debate and progressing it, on the defining issues of our time. I may be a Taurus, but frankly I DON’T GIVE A RAT’S ASS about what Taurus is doing if it is wallowing in a detached personal bubble.
Maybe we need more challenging horoscopes? Where folk can’t dodge the action part of personal responsibilty, due to spiritual self indulgence.
Great work, once again bro! This is where the REAL news is at. Wake up Planet Wavers! Let’s engage and move this world-shaping agenda forward..
Just read my horoscope and this cracked me up, “Were I writing this horoscope in 1930, I would look at your solar chart and say, “Expect a letter from overseas.” But it’s 2014 and you’ve probably already had 20 pieces of spam from Kazakhstan today”, cos I recently met a guy, a colleague who’s just been sent to the field, to Afghanistan for two months! Such a helpful horoscope, Eric….
Can always count on you to come up with the goods when a beloved musician passes away, dear Eric – soothes an aching heart. Thank you.
All coliseum activities from gladiators to halfbacks – products of empire. I appreciated the description of the cult quality the game has evoked, and I believe The Super Bowl has equaled and maybe surpassed Christmas in the US as a primary “cultural” event.
Men describe any given Sunday as the “church of football”. A person was actually shot and killed in a form of one-on-one sectarian violence when she didn’t express ardent enough mourning when Alabama, their college conference team lost an important SEC (Southeast Conference) game to Auburn.
Sometimes its not safe to wander the streets of Rome, even for the bread and circuses events used to placate us.