There are moments when life in our society feels like a walk along the edge, and we’re in one now. If you read the Internet, it verges on impossible that you missed the news about the government indexing your email, your text messages, your phone calls, your Skype visits with friends, your credit card bills and your location on the planet.
This isn’t the worst thing to happen to a population — there have been a lot of holocausts since the day your grandma was born. Yet prying into our private lives, spying on the intimate affairs of people and threatening to use the information against them, is an act of psychological warfare that’s been used by the most notorious tyrants in history. We are experiencing an attack on the subtle trust that holds our relationships and our society together.
It’s not necessarily what anyone finds out about you that is the problem with being spied on; rather, it’s the sensation that there is no sanctuary anywhere. I don’t think it’s enough to say ‘what did you expect?’ I believe we need a more thoughtful response. The Internet is a frontier and while we may not know where we are in the history of consciousness, you can trust that it’s somewhere important.
The scenario is illustrated beautifully in an aspect that’s exact Monday night: the Gemini Sun opposite the (Chiron-like) centaur planet Pholus. Discovered orbiting our Sun in 1992, Pholus is the thing that comes out that cannot go back in. Borrowing from my friend Robert, who co-wrote the first book about this point, Pholus is the small cause with the big effect.
The Sun opposite this point looks like it would be volatile, but I think it’s more about the sensation of what could burst free rather than what will actually do so. That said, I don’t suggest you go looking for land mines by jumping around randomly, or trying to figure who is a nice guy by provoking anyone. Today is a day to walk gently on the Earth, remembering you’re also walking through the cosmos.
It’s definitely a day to make small, subtle refinements. It’s a day to align your speech with your highest ideals. It’s a day to look for the spot where opposites reconcile. It’s a day to focus on your true idea of what it means to be spiritually grounded — for this we have some help from Jupiter making its one and only opposition to the Galactic Core this week.
There’s an invitation to empathy and service in the grouping of planets that have collected in Cancer — as of today, the lunar apogee, Mercury, the Moon, Vesta and Ceres. Vesta offers the reminder to distinguish between sharing and sacrifice. Work within a safe emotional container, even though the Sun-Pholus aspect may be pushing boundaries or the sense that there’s no railing between you and the sensation of a long way down illustrated by that aspect.
Mars and Pallas are still in a conjunction — the same one that made a square to Neptune on Saturday and seems to have provoked Edward Snowden, a former NSA employee, to come out with the truth about the Obama administration spying on the world. This aspect also says, focus your mind. Clarify your strategy and refine it as necessary. Be alert to the necessity for justice and do yourself the honor of doing what is right.
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Thank you Eric for your very enlightening article and note cited: Pholus is the small cause with great effect… Do what is right does not always the reward at the end of the path, I have always learned it under the Sun and Pholus opposition. Rescue at that specific time should be thinking twice
chief niwots son et al-
i’m late as well-multiple funerals this week has me playing catch up with internet readings.
miaferoleto i believe what your friend is describing is foucault’s analysis and theory of how surveillance works as power- where the state and its constant gaze on an individual evokes a ‘state of conscious and permanent visibility’ that functions as self-policing (foucault 1977) i.e., the internalization of being constantly watched makes the subject his own ‘overseer’. (caluya 2010).
could this be interpreted as the porous yet fake structure mentioned by bkoehler as neptune in the chart?
and lest i forget a big shout out to the NSA readers out there! Hope you’re broadening your minds a bit while here on PW !
Late to the party again, but here’s another thought- as much as the powers that be have assembled whatever mechanisms of control they have in place, their control can never be total, for they work only on very material levels of consciousness. Realms beyond the material cannot be manipulated, and they continually influence the denser layers of reality. So people like Mr. Snowden will always appear, glitches in the Matrix, if you will. In fact, the Matrix (to extend the analogy) is far more diverse, complex and creative to ever be under the control of ego-centric bipedal lifeforms.
Wikipedia has a birth date for Edward Snowden of 6/21/83, which puts his Gemini Sun-conjunct the north node and also Mars, opposite Neptune in Sagittarius conjunct the south node and the Galactic Center. Natal asteroid Askalaphus (the whistleblower) at 25 Pisces forms a T-square to his Sun opposite Neptune. His Chiron (making aware) conjunct Isis (assemble the pieces), Echeclus (balance between abstract and linear logic) and Siwa (catabolic process preceding insight), are all at 0 Gemini, the degree where last year’s total solar eclipse was and where Venus was in the May 9, 2013 solar eclipse. Snowden also has a Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Libra that sextiles his Neptune and trines his Sun.
Today transiting Atlantis at 3+ Cancer is conjunct the U.S. Sibly Venus (values) who rules the 6th house of service and the 10th house of government and reputation.
be
Actually, I’m inclined to go along with that theory mia, because for a long time, even before Neptune entered Pisces the 2nd time, I’ve felt that he was the behind-the-scene influence, if not the main influence for evolutionary changes, while Uranus and Pluto were the overt stimuli of these changes. The media, particularly the cable news guys, need things to occupy their attention so REAL (government) planning can take place. Why wouldn’t the breaking news (!) of government phone taps/records give pause to home-grown would-be terrorists? It could even be a bluff. Throw the media some red meat to chomp on while the real covert work is handled quietly behind the scenes. Maybe I’ve just watched too many Burn Notice episodes.
But think about what Neptune trine Saturn would produce. Fake structure. Ever since they were first trine in Aquarius back in January 2012, they have been working on something. By the time Neptune made his 2nd entrance into Pisces on Feb. 3, 2012, Pallas-Athene was almost conjunct him (exact on February 11-12) and I believe that’s when the strategy began to take shape. On June 25, 2012, she made contact with both Uranus in Aries (conjunct) and Pluto in Capricorn (square) and that’s when the plot really began to thicken. Now she’s hanging in there with Mars in Gemini. And she’s not the only one either; there’s asteroid Lilith (personal dark side), Lachesis (determines the length of the life of something), Altjira (ruler of dream time) and all 4 of them are at 6 Gemini, right behind Mars at 7 Gemini. And he’s conjunct the U.S. Uranus! And he’s been squaring transiting Neptune! It could very well be a smoke screen.
One last observation regarding the earlier mentioned trans. Mercury conjunct the U.S. Sun and trine trans. Chiron. There’s another leg to this pattern today. Transiting Psyche is at 13+ Scorpio and she completes a grand trine. Mercury and Neptune and Psyche in water signs? Is that not a smoke screen? If not, it will make a great movie.
be
Eric, Thank you for your verse that so artistically expresses our current position and astronomy, defining what we are all so capable of. It is united in Pamela Turczyn beautiful tittle and expression, Triangulation.
“Today is a day to walk gently on the Earth, remembering you’re also walking through the cosmos.
It’s definitely a day to make small, subtle refinements. It’s a day to align your speech with your highest ideals. It’s a day to look for the spot where opposites reconcile. It’s a day to focus on your true idea of what it means to be spiritually grounded -”
Sincerely, thank you for this!
A close friend in the disclosure movement said that government wants people to know they are under surveillance as a means of control. Had the administration not wanted the information out there it would not be out there. There is some truth to that for certain.
This aspect works equally well for the Zimmerman trial chart, set for 9 AM in Sanford, FL. “..it’s more about the sensation of what could burst free..” might tell the whole story. This chart has Uranus in the 9th house and about 3 degrees from the MC. As the ruler of the chart (asc. Cancer), the Moon in the 12th house (prison) is exactly opposite Pluto in the 6th house (jury) while Uranus in the 9th house (law) is at the apex of a T-square with them.
Of course there is the grand trine in water with Saturn in the 4th house trine Neptune in the 8th house and Moon-conjunct-Venus-and-Mercury in the 12th house. Phil Sedgwick in his June 8th newsletter refers to trans. Pluto as a “grounding rod” for the water grand trine, and in this case, Pluto promises to provide some high drama as he rules (or co-rules) the empty 5th house.
I can’t help but wonder about Mars’ role in this chart. He is in a pivotal position (7+ Gemini) because he sextiles Uranus in Aries, squares Neptune in Pisces, and is quincunx Pluto in Capricorn as well as Saturn in Scorpio. As the apex of a yod with Saturn and Pluto from his position in the 11th house, and ruler of the MC (the results) as well as Uranus (in Aries) he seems to be holding the trump card (or cards). From the 11th house, could he represent a backlash of public opinion, even demonstrations for either or both Trayvon Martin or George Zimmerman? This trial is about blacks vs. whites being judged equally as represented by these two men.
The U.S. Sibly chart’s Uranus is at 8+ Gemini but the progressed Uranus is at 7+ Gemini and today’s Mars is conjunct them both. There will be much communication (Gemini) as well as duplicity (Gemini), and because Mars co-rules the 5th house (Scorpio cusp) with Pluto, it will be dramatic. It will also attract world-wide coverage as Uranus in the 9th and the MC in Aries are ruled by Mars. Neptune ruling the 9th house (Pisces on the cusp) of foreign countries and networks, emphasizes the emotional leaning of news coverage.
Finally, there is this. Transiting Mercury at 13+ Cancer is conjunct the U.S. Sibly Sun at 13+ Cancer. They are both trine transiting Chiron at 13+ Pisces in the 9th house. It is a sterling opportunity for the USA to break from past attitudes and be a shining example of fairness and equality. The World will be watching.
be
What a beautiful thought for today. Let it be so.
This! “It’s not necessarily what anyone finds out about you that is the problem with being spied on; rather, it’s the sensation that there is no sanctuary anywhere. I don’t think it’s enough to say ‘what did you expect?’ I believe we need a more thoughtful response.”
It’s also not enough to say “how dare they!” I operate from the perspective that the government is us, and I have to take some responsibility for these situations. I think about the Cheating Industrial Complex, where people use tech to spy on their “loved ones” every move and even check their DNA instead of just talking about what’s going on. Those levels of distrust and dishonesty ripple on.
Except of course, that Orwell couldn’t have imagined post 9/11, when the powers that be practically had carte blanche with surveillance measures, and we ended up living in a different world from the one we knew.
Brave guy, Snowden. My heart goes out to him and his loved ones, You know, I instinctively felt that this was happening, to the extent that I vowed never to tell my closest friiend, now living in another country, over Skyoe,, a juicy story about an acquaintance of mine while he was staying in the US (many years ago), until I saw her face to face. It’s the same old story, which Orwell told so brilliantly years ago, only it’s more terrifying and wide-reaching with all this technology available.
Thanks for this piece and the great advice, Eric.