“Corporate Power” from Starlight News

Note to Readers: One of the best things about Planet Waves’ investigative journalistic astrology is finding astrologers of kindred spirit here on our website and on the web who are focused on the political astrology of the day. Astrologer Nancy Summers is publisher of Starlight News, a political astrology website. She provides this take on the Supreme Court decision granting personhood to corporations. Given the amount of  seismic activity on earth and its halls of power, its always good to have perspective from all eyes watching. —fb

by Nancy Sommers

One of the central themes of our time in the US and abroad is the uphill struggle by those who fight for the public interest against the increasing and pervasive domination of powerful corporations. The astrological symbol of this is the passage of Pluto through the sign of Capricorn from 2008 through 2023-24.

The planet Pluto describes an intensely focused, engulfing power that wants total control. While in Sagittarius, from 1995 through 2008, this battle was largely ideological (Sagittarius) and manifested in the global rise of religious extremism, including the growing power of fundamentalist-fueled terrorism associated with the willingness to commit suicide for an idea. As Pluto moved into Capricorn, the ideological striving of religious extremists morphed into a hunger for a more consolidated, reality-based power, and the spreading terrorist threat has seemed to take on a more political, calculated, and tactical direction.

In addition to its rulership of mass movements based on fanatical teachings, Pluto also rules hidden, manipulative, and potent concentrations of wealth, in other words, the obsessive push of consolidated wealth toward global corporate dominance. This side of Pluto is particularly well-expressed when Pluto is in the sign of political power and government institutions: Capricorn. During this 15-year period, corporate power will strive to expand exponentially through an insidious penetration into government institutions, igniting a growing power struggle of epic proportion with those who attempt to restrict this takeover, and leading to an eventual implosion emanating directly from this fanatical and overreaching grasp for control. The reign of corporate dominance (Pluto in Capricorn) will, at some point in the 2020’s, begin to transform into a far more egalitarian reality (Pluto in Aquarius), which eventually will also push too far, leading into the next phase of the cycle.

The last time Pluto crossed through the sign of Capricorn was from 1762 to 1778, during which time the British aggressively expanded their global dominance. This period began with the Treaty of Paris of 1763 in which the British dramatically extended their foothold in the New World at the expense of the French and the Spanish: the French ceded Canada and all land east of the Mississippi while the Spanish ceded Florida. The increasingly onerous rule of the British over their American colony is well known, as is the growing rebellion of the colonists which culminated in their Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the Revolutionary War that followed. The Pluto in Capricorn pattern of increasingly consolidated power overextending itself and attempting to control a backlash of growing rebellion is clear.

The current cycle of Pluto in Capricorn is likely to be particularly striking due to the significant aspects that Pluto makes with other major planets during this period. At present, we are in the midst of the Saturn/Pluto square (November 2009 through August 2010) during which a fierce battle is taking place to restrict, control, or regulate (Saturn) the encroaching and omnivorous power of Pluto, manifesting today primarily in both the threat of terrorism and the growing corporate control over political institutions and governmental policy. This Saturn/Pluto configuration is particularly strong from November 2009 through January 2010. This period was initiated with the Fort Hood shootings, followed by the attempted Christmas bombing, which have brought a renewed vigilance in response to the perceived threat of terrorism in our midst. In addition, corporate money has been pouring in behind the scenes to sabotage the Democrats attempt to restructure the health care industry, the EPA’s attempt to regulate green house gases, and President Obama’s attempt to impose restrictions on the banking industry.

The most dramatic manifestation of the Saturn/Pluto square came on January 21 when the conservative majority on the Supreme Court overturned nearly a century of settled law and announced its decision to allow corporations to lavish unregulated money on the political campaigns of their lackeys. Historically, Republicans have always taken the side of big business against the rights and needs of everyday people. Ironically, they claim to do this in the name of “freedom”, usually either free-market capitalism, which they worship like a deity, or the right of free speech, which Chief Justice Roberts called upon as the basis for his egregious majority opinion.

Unfortunately, the Republicans’ obsession with “freedom” often blinds them to the larger truth of their enslavement to an unjust and rapacious economic system ruled by immoral financial behemoths. The Roberts Court blithely opened the floodgates of corporate money into the political arena in the name of free speech. But it missed the fact that it will be denying political free speech to millions of citizens whose hard-earned dollars are no longer of much value. It also treacherously weakened the voter’s tie to his legislators who will now be more dependent than ever on their corporate sponsors. In short, with their self-deluded fixation on a fantasy freedom in the face of legitimate attempts to rein in the many-headed hydra of corporate power, the Republicans and their Supreme Court stooges have become like the pampered house slaves of antebellum times, rushing to defend their masters against those who would rise up and advocate for real freedom from the oppressors.

Following this year’s Saturn/Pluto square, the next great chapter in the battle against the controlling and manipulative forces (Pluto) of our time will come with the protracted Uranus/Pluto square, which will occur eight times between June 2012 and March 2015. While Pluto represents those who would maneuver and obsessively wield their hidden and vast wealth or their overwhelming power, Uranus represents the spirit of sudden and wild rebellion or revolution in the face of restrictions that have become unbearable. The clashing of these two forces is likely to shake up the power structure of the world in a myriad of ways: political, economic, and military. How this will unfold is yet to be determined. But no matter how the saga continues, the world-wide cries for freedom against the oppressive elements of the status quo will be hard to ignore.