Here are the correspondences to Pluto’s movements in Capricorn that Len Wallick found when he checked out dates mentioned in Wired.com’s story about Mike Merrill, aka “KmikeyM,” with commentary by me. – Amanda Painter
— Jan. 26, 2008, when Mike decided to start selling shares in himself, is the day Pluto entered Capricorn “for the first time since Benjamin Franklin was flying his kite,” as Len Wallick phrased it.
— February 2008: Pluto’s first aspect to the Sun after entering Capricorn — a sextile to the Sun in the first degree of Pisces.
On Feb. 15, 2008, Merrill asked investors if he should make a short video to market himself to potential investors. Technically, the Sun was still in Aquarius on Feb. 15, but within orb of Pluto. (Sounds like the ‘ruling group’ — an Aquarius theme — preferred to keep him to themselves at that time.)
— August 2008: Pluto had retrograded back into Sagittarius in July.
In August 2008, Merrill moved in with then-girlfriend Willow McCormick (a minority shareholder). For Merrill and McCormick, this may have felt like a Sagittarian leap of faith; for at least one shareholder, it was more like a business risk, and Merrill then agreed to let shareholders vote on personal decisions.
On Aug. 10, 2008, shareholders voted on whether Mike should get a vasectomy (387 yes, 456 no).
— July and August 2009: Pluto is within orb to square from Saturn in late Virgo (an out of sign square).
“In July 2009, a year and half after Merrill IPO’d himself, some participants on a discussion board called Hacker News were debating the hypothetical possibility of a personal IPO. ‘Sometimes slavery can be beneficial for slaves,’ one commentator noted,” according to Wired.com. (Saturn can be about structure, limits and authority.) As a result of the online discussion, the first complete stranger became a majority owner of Merrill, viewing it as “a radical diversification of my portfolio.”
Aug. 21, 2009: Shareholders vote on whether Mike should stop sleeping through the night (639 yes, 373 no).
— Feb. 2, 2010: Saturn square Pluto, exact to the degree (as it was for several days).
Feb. 2 2010: Shareholders vote whether Mike should become a vegetarian (453 yes, 288 no).
— Jan. 24, 2012: Sun conjunct Pluto in Capricorn.
Jan. 24, 2012: Shareholders vote whether they should receive Mike’s life insurance payout when he dies (297 yes, 10 no). Pluto is god of the underworld and is often given the key phrase, ‘change or die’; the Sun represents our life force and consciousness. Shareholders of KmikeyM seem to have decided that Pluto in Capricorn wins over the Sun in this matchup.
