Ladies and gentlemen, meet the 2012 Republican candidate for president: Mr. Handsome. Or he will be, if he can stay out of the sex scandal business.
But first, psychology class.
Dr. Wilhelm Reich, renowned as Freud’s brightest student, and notably the one who rebelled against him with the most precision, said that politics was the very pinnacle of neurosis.
We have options for understanding the current state of politics, other than psychoanalytic. We can look at the election of Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate as a backlash against the failings of the Democrats, and Obama’s seeming failure to live up to his campaign promises. Then again, Brown campaigned with a promise to be the 41st vote against health care reform in the minority rules Senate (where you need 60 votes to get anything done). So the public is pissed off that Obama and the Dems aren’t doing enough; and the answer is to scramble the little that they have got done; which sounds more terrible twos than adolescent. The only reason I buy that analysis is the chart — which I’ll come to in a moment.
Let’s get used to the fact that the Cornballs have stolen the concept of progressivism from the Democrats and the Independents and for that matter from Abbey Hoffman and Noam Chomsky. That’s the way things go. Hippie, punk, nerd, goth, heroin addict and the American flag all find their way to the same Madison Ave.
But to find out who Mr. Handsome really is, all you had to do was listen to his victory speech. In particular, the part when he declares both of his daughters available. In the greatest moment of his life, as the man of the hour, on international television, he offers his daughters to…whomever.
With them, and their mother, standing right there.
Haha, just kidding and by the way one has a boyfriend. But for anyone who doubts that the Republicans are the official party of barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, you now have some compelling evidence of your own.
It is amazing how the guy whose qualifications for Senate include having a truck and posing nude in Cosmo can get elected by a landslide in a state where there are more universities than farms. You would think that in a moment when so many are so cynical about politics, the person who isn’t really a politician — Martha Coakley qualifies brilliantly — might be the choice of those paying attention. She knows less about the Boston Red Socks than I do, which I thought was impossible — especially if you live in Boston. You might think that because it was Ted Kennedy who worked for so many decades for health care reform, the voters of his state might want to honor that legacy and not guarantee his dream will be DOA the moment the Senate resumes session…fractured as that dream is, after last autumn’s psychotic, manipulated session of Congress.
So how exactly did Mr. Handsome get elected? Well of course: he answered the mystical longing of the people. Very, very repressed people, whose sexual pain is so intense that it turns into what Dr. Reich called a mystical longing, which is then answered by a ‘leader’ offering nothing more than charisma (and a hidden agenda). The same way that Sarah Palin gets any attention at all. To say they are both porn stars would be partly accurate, but in general porn stars are harmless working folk who actually make a difference in people’s lives. What we are looking at uses sex appeal as bait for another purpose.
Let’s look at the chart, which is dripping with mystery, sex and confusion. Uranus on the 7th house cusp, particularly in Pisces, looks like a populist revolt. Uranus is the planet of revolt and Pisces is the sign of populism. Look at how precisely it aspects the 7th house cusp — to the very degree, as if Coakley called her astrologer and asked her when to make the call, down to the minute. This placement suggests the USA pol scene is about to get turned upside down with the elegance of a shark scare on a hot day at the beach. Yet this is the revenge of the clueless; Tea Baggers Quantum Edition. Then the Moon — the public — is also in Pisces and is about to make a conjunction to Uranus. This would be a sweet chart if you’re starting a movie; which may be what just we just started.
The fun has just begun (and in two months from today it will be throbbing). However, the Fishy Moon-Uranus conjunction is charming compared to other aspects of this chart, of which I will describe two.
For an image of the unbridled nihilistic narcissism inherent in this election and so much of American politics, culture and media, we can look right to Eris in the 8th house: the house not just of sex, but of the sex/death/money/power/secrets confluence. That special kind of sex; ‘the sex you want’, according to one of my mentors; in other words, despite all the potential madness and pitfall, we actually do seek our deepest erotic releases in the 8th. In other words, when you wonder why people tap their foot in a men’s room, or, you know, risk it all for sex, they are generally driven by the compulsion of the 8th. I am not generally in the role of outing people, but I do read charts. Would the secret young hunk please come forward?
Aries is on the cusp of that house and Eris, right there, points to Mars retrograde in Leo. Who would that be?
Aries there also represents the special kind of self-obsessed mental chaos of our era, where the streets are wandered by those lacking any concept who they are; or was it always this way; or is this part of our cultural myth: that we are the land of the lost, which is our excuse for letting everything slide. Whether or not you take Eris to be a vindictive, castaway outsider looking for revenge (apropos enough, in this case), Eris in Aries illustrates our massive collective identity crisis; the concept of identity flaking apart even as it updates its Facebook page.
Last, we have the Sun in Capricorn in the 5th house: the house of taking risks; of compulsive gambling; of more sex we think people just cannot help. The Capricorn involvement, however, looks like gambling with power. Not just anywhere in Capricorn, but in the last degree of Capricorn: void of course, or anaretic, depending on your lingo: a big lesson of some kind. This is the edgy part; this is the part about something ‘about to come out’. (Feb. 2 we learn something about this guy, or this election — mark your calendar.)
An hour later, and the Sun would be in Aquarius, which is a very different story. I don’t have my Sabian symbols book handy, but that last degree of Cap is the one about the secret cabal of leaders who rule the world. And in Capricorn style, this looks kind of like ancient Rome.
Oh, that’s where I recognize Mr. Handsome from.
Check out this cartoon by Steve Bell from the Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/cartoon/2010/jan/21/scott-brown-senate-win
Eric:
The Supreme Court has just ruled that corps are people and that election spending is free speech.
I have no way to prove or disprove your proposal; I can only go from instincts and experience and I would say no — this was not orchestrated. It’s circumstantial. If anyone is doing the organizing, it’s the Teabaggers, who have hijacked the political debate. Neither side has an agenda, unless you count the agenda of screwing things up and creating chaos. The business of America (i.e., the United States) is business; that is the agenda of the all-powerful Republicrat party. Few people really care about a progressive agenda. As far as I can tell, Americans care about whether they eat, get their meds and can have some buying power; and to a lesser extent, whether they feel ‘good’. Few people associate being able to buy their meds with health care reform; few associate the need for the meds with other problems. If we wanted change in the United States, we would get it. If we wanted our troops out of Afghanistan or Iraq, we would get that. So my sense is, no, this was not orchestrated by Obama, who has enough problems on his plate than orchestrating the loss of a Senate seat. Maybe that could happen in a movie, but in politics, it’s not the thing to do. You strive to win every election that you don’t screw up. And they definitely screwed up, from the choice of candidate on forward. But that’s really just the surface of the problem.
LB:
Very interesting premise, and its making me think chicken and egg.
There is certainly a way this President is trying to motivate the country, and I also think this country is trying to wake itself up from a period which I hope the history books will name The Long Sleep of let’s say ten years or more — see Len’s post above, beginning with the Clinton midterms of 1994 until now. Add Neptune in Aquarius, and you can see the fog rising along with the war(s) under Bush-Cheney.
Some people are just mad. Others are mad and making strange deals with the “devil” on the other side. Whatever it is, Obama could be setting himself up to be a lightning rod to get a fearful Congress to get off its collective ass, and a country to get motivated to move in a different direction. I look at this anger as the way a captain makes the ship’s crew get up after a long night of carousing—the storm is coming, and everyone has to get on board and head the baby home. We’ve been too far gone. Energy, even the energy of anger is useful right now.
I was wondering something about this week’s Republican win in Ted Kennedy’s old seat and I was wondering if there is a chance that this may have been something Obama’s team strategized as a method to finally push forward with a more progressive agenda. He appears middle of the road for one year, long enough for the Republican to clamor away about the need for change and that he is the status quo and run with that message and this reminds progressives about the need to be involved and to not simply abandon him now that he needs public support…It could be a rallying call for progressives and liberals who voted for him but sat back on their laurels expecting him to do everything. Also, this gives him more leverage to push through ideas which may have seemed “too liberal” as he pushes Republicans to show their true colors and take a stand on issues; for example, the imposing of stricter rules in the banking sector…republicans are suddenly representing themselves as the change and the alternative so Obama can take more liberal stances and push the republicans to reveal their true agendas…Just thinking…is that a possibility?
With love and blessings,
LB in toronto
She might not be as smart as you think.
Martha Goes Mad! (Martha Coakley attacks Catholics and Red Socks but still thinks she can win)
Wall Street Journal ^ | 1/18/2010 | JAMES TARANTO
Posted on Monday, January 18, 2010 2:07:35 PM by tobyhill
“Some Democrats are worried [Martha] Coakley has been too methodical in the six-week sprint to Tuesday’s special election,” the Associated Press reports, referring to the Democratic nominee for the Senate seat that Ted Kennedy held until his death.
Coakley seems to be taking this criticism to heart, because lately she has been acting CRA-ZEEE! In an interview with Ken Pittman, a host at New Bedford’s WBSM-AM, she said that Catholics “probably shouldn’t work in the emergency room.” The Gelnmary Research Center reports (see table 6, page 2) that as of 2000, 48.7% of Massachues and Massachusettes were Catholic–a slight decline from 49.2% in 1990, but still enough to make Massachusetts the most Catholic state other than Rhode Island. According to exit polls, 53% of Massachusetts voters in 2008 were Catholic. Supporting invidious discrimination against roughly half the state’s voters would seem a decidedly unmethodical way of winning an election.
I am bi but I don’t have a lot of gaydar. And I don’t have a lot of straightdar, either. I’m first figuring out how to spot a horny woman. I am a slow learner. However, Mr Handsome seems so queer to me, it verges on funny. I have a colleague down in DC named Mike Rogers who has outed nearly all of the gay congressboys IF they go against the gay cause (they are the ones you have heard about). You can be a closet case and it’s fine with that; but if you’re a closet case and you go against the Homosexual Agenda…and he finds out…and someone gives him the photos…it’s curtains…
Glenn Beck said today that he wants to slap a chastity belt on Brown because he’s the kind of guy who could end up with a dead intern.
But I agree with Eric. Eris pointing at Mars retrograde in Leo looks like a secret gay lover to me. Oh I do hope this comes out.
== Beck said that! WOW! The Impossible Has Happened! We agree on something!
Ah dear, those voters in Massachusetts falling for GLMS — Good Looking Man’s Syndrome. Tripping over themselves just to bask in the light Mister Handsome.
Oh but I see I’m going to have to rename the syndrome to GLPS (Good Looking Person’s Syndrome) seeing as Ms. Purdy Palin gets the boner vote at her end too.
But hey, it’s really got to be both sex and race so I think I’ll settle in the end for GLWPS — Good Looking White Person’s Syndrome!
Heaven help us in our “mystical longings” and where it might lead us.
😉
Eric and len:
Hi guys.
Oh how I love the smell of burning hubris in the morning. You just made my day.
Len, your analysis points me back to Uranus Pisces 7th, with the Moon about to show up. On second look — I did this chart pretty fast at 4 am — that is not so thrilling for him. Even if he could handle that energy, it would not be easy. This guy is simply full of himself and is not what you would call an advanced intellect. He has an invincibility complex and he’s making too much of his place in history. That 7th is as much blowback for him as it is a collective event; and we have a picture of what might happen in his marriage (or what is happening). He has got as far as high office without his secrets coming out. But when Uranus makes a move, you know it.
Eric,
Thank you for the chart and analysis. Please allow me to add a reading of my own.
i hold Mr. Reich in high esteem just as you do and i agree with the “dripping with” observation. However, some other things make me think the Republicans would be wise to stand down on their celebration. First (as far as i can tell) no intercepted houses – that’s rare and indicates either a fluke or auspicious (in which way?) event. The fact that all the houses are about the same size (again, as far as i can see) indicates to me that the breaks will even out over time. Saturn retrograde in the first house would seem to counsel limiting expectations of the event. The South lunar node in the fourth house (along with Mercury and Pluto) seems to indicate that the election results have at least as much to do with the past as the future and that there is a degree of attachment in peoples personal lives being expressed here. The lack of heavy energy in the 10th house and the heavily-opposed North node in the 11th would seem to favor the “fluke” or (at least) make the auspiciousness of this election double-edged.
Please remember that Massachusetts (Boston in particular) was one of the places where school segregation met the most resistance. As distasteful as this may sound, the results of this election may have as much to do with race as sexuality. If that is the case, the demographic trends in our nation would indeed make this election an isolated and temporary setback for the current adminsitration.
I know. The minute I saw him I thought, oh, boy, there he is, they’re going to groom him for *everything*, up to and including President of the United States. I thought, oh, look, it’s the antichrist on the TV and he looks like GI Joe.
And the minute I saw him, I knew he was going to win. I thought, crikey, they must have been combing the hills and valleys, there must have been a casting call for the Next Republican Distraction. And I thought, yeah, so much for my affordable health care.
*I* want GI Joe, you know? Do you think the women voters were voting on the issues? Or do you think they were thinking: ” GI Joe’s gonna come to my house and in this one he’s a fireman, and he carries me to safety and then he kisses me and then we get married.”
Another secret weapon launched, I’d say.
Oh Eric.
When you are good you are very, very good, but when you are bad you are incredible! (and before I forget, Morgana, thank you sooo much for the story of Lot reminder)
So what happens on Feb 2? Can’t wait for that. He has to have at least one Achilles heel. . . Sarah Palin did. Do you suppose they might join up and give us a duo nude poster in Cosmo or Playboy? Nothing can surprise me in what (sorry, who) we as a country will elect for leaders . . nothing.
As for Ted Kennedy’s fractured dream; why not create tv commercials featuring him at his best to promote what healthcare for everyone could be like. I say this because of Ted Kennedy’s Mars/Mercury (work/vision) conjunction in Aquarius and the U.S. Sibley chart’s Pallas Athene (plans) conjunct the U.S. Moon (people), all between 26-29 Aquarius.
Last night Chiron was at 24 Aquarius and Neptune was at 25 Aquarius, and by the time of the New Moon on March 15 they will have reached 27+ Aquarius (Neptune) and 28+ Aquarius ( Chiron) and could have saturated the “people” (27 + Aquarius) with the “plan” (26+ Aquarius) that Sen. Kennedy invisioned (28+ Aquarius) and worked so hard for (27+ Aquarius).
That New Moon at 25 Pisces 10, along with Mercury (26 Pisces) and Uranus (26 Pisces 29) will be conjunct Sen. Ted Kennedy’s North Node at 27 Pisces. It just speaks loudly of television, internet, communicating, propaganda (well, yes), thought and thinking, and most of all, dreams and visions. Don’t you think? President Obama’s Pallas Athene is at 25 Pisces and he just has to have something like this in mind.
Speaking of President Obama, when March 15 arrives, the Washington DC New Moon chart’s descendant will be at 29 Aquarius, with the Chiron and Neptune conjunction, and President Obama’s North Node (27+ Leo) and his Uranus (25+ Leo) will be on the ascendant (29+ Leo) joined with his Pallas/Saturn sextile to complete his yod. Right where it is supposed to be. He is still the president for heaven’s sake.
be
So we have the result of a tantrum, picked for appearances, in the touchstone Senate seat of the US Congress. Embarrassment awaits. That’s the problem with democracy — the people get who they vote for. I trust that at some point we’ll remember that the nations leadership isn’t just an episode of American Idol. As always, I think this has an up side but we’ll have to blow back a lot of hot air from the Pubs before we can find it. Look out for flying gasbags. They’re toxic.
i don’t know much about Reich, but i would vote instead for Carl Jung as his brightest student/colleague and the one who rebelled with the most precision…
== if you knew about Reich, you might not say that. Jung didn’t really rebel: he went in a totally different direction. Reich stays with Freud’s original idea: that sex is the heart of the matter, while Freud and the Vienna school yield to the Nazis’ purity campaign, and shift their philosophy to a death-based concept of a how a person defines himself or herself.
“..let there be songs, to fill the air.”
Thank you for this cogent analysis. I keep wondering what can be the motivation. How to address this mystical longing in a more thoughtful way… that is the question.
In the greatest moment of his life, as the man of the hour, on international television, he offers his daughters to…whomever.
Hm. Yes. I immediately went to the place in my head where the story of Lot (Old Testament) resides. The daughters are offered as sacrifice as a means of protecting the male ego, expressed in context of the story’s prevailing patriarchal order.
But later, Lot reveals an Achilles heel… and the daughters claim their 6-8 pounds of flesh per person, to balance the scales. Perversely, that’s my favorite part of the story. 😀
From my own, outsider’s, pov, this whole thing seems almost beyond belief in the context of UK politics. Yes, we have our own stories playing out here … but what is playing out in the US seems to be altogether different in design and approach.
Well, that’s my immediate feeling anyway. Yes, we had the charisma of Tony Blair in the 90s/00s. That’s about as charismatic as it gets. And that is gone now. There is a sense of the movies in US politics that you refer to, Eric, that we in the UK generally don’t really experience. Perhaps because policiticians here are a different breed … less well-paid, far less access to the huge clout of monetary backing that policitians get in the US – which has always been rather mystifying.
So, yes, mystified is what I’m feeling. Surreal!
— Sarah