By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
If my in-box is any reflection, Thanksgiving is no longer a mere holiday but more a gateway to Black Friday turned Black Weekend cum Cyber Monday, already evolved into CyberWeek. This pernicious capitalism-creep has been sneaking up on us for years, and now it’s gone full-tilt boogie. We pass long-standing markers of tradition without even a glance behind these days. Christmas stuff went up just after Labor Day, competing with Halloween candy and Thanksgiving decorations, and I expect Valentine’s Day junk to fill the aisles soon after New Years (if not before.)
I dunno, maybe a spending spasm of this sort, giving folks a leg up on holiday shopping, will take some of the angst out of the December crunch. At least some of the popular products show a tendency toward greening. I was pleased to see CNN highlight the newest environmentally-sound technology at the LA Car Show today, featuring the cute little Chevy Spark that will be available in 2014 in California and Oregon: an electric car that gets 100 miles per charge and is capable of taking an 80% charge in as little as 20 minutes. Hard to imagine in the Pea Patch, but — you know — as California goes, so goes the nation, sooner or later.
With the eclipses behind us and Mercury gone direct, we’ve finally seen some progress on the home front, or, at least, movement in the larger sense. Brad Manning got a long-awaited day in court, testifying about his brutal pre-trial treatment and how his military psychiatrist’s recommendations were blatantly ignored by brig commanders. Manning was detained without trial for 921 days, despite military law’s mandated maximum of 120. Coming on the heels of the two-year anniversary of the release of the Wikileaks documents, Julian Assange — a virtual prisoner in London, granted long-term political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy — spoke of Manning’s treatment in an article he wrote for Huffington Post, a briefing on the Wiki information every American should read. Pass it around.
On the bigger stage, Palestine got its vote in the U.N. and is finally recognized as a legitimate actor: a non-member observer state. This boosts the cred of President Mahmoud Abbas who, negotiating without rockets, has taken a beating in popularity among his people, especially those who favor the more direct approach preferred by Hamas. The recent battle between Israel and Hamas should prove the folly of Palestinian defiance in the face of superior force, which usually earns them a 500:1 retribution ratio, mostly paid in the blood of Gaza’s women and kids. Obviously, Hamas doesn’t seem to mind losing citizens if it provides them an opportunity for revenge and an uptick in popularity.
The U.N. vote is considered a slap at the Obama administration’s inability to get a grip on the peace process, as well as a sign of international frustration and displeasure at Netanyahu’s lift of the freeze on settlement construction in Gaza. Truth be told, the right-wing Israeli hard-line has even begun to work the nerves of the American public, if not yet the inner sanctum of the State Department. There were just nine votes denying Palestine a place at the table, and it’s a short, embarrassing list: the U.S., Canada, Israel, the Czech Republic and a handful of small island nations.
You’d think, here in the colonies (which we ruthlessly grabbed from indigenous inhabitants under flags of manifest destiny and white exceptionalism) we’d feel some hint of karmic backwash, and perhaps we do, though it’s seldom spoken of in mainstream circles. Speaking of karma, this wrangle in the Holy Land is the world’s oldest, the cradle of humankind’s beginnings and the scene of some of its darkest moments. Perhaps it’s timely that our attention shifts to an area so steeped in historic bloodletting, reconsidering our position as Israel’s unquestioning ally even as a CNN anchor — in a jaw-dropping moment, I thought — began a national conversation today by asking, given the U.N. vote, what the world knows that we don’t.
Yes, there’s movement at a very deep level, a change of mind that’s taking shape within the conscience of a newly-awakened America. Have we become teachable now? I appreciated Len’s recent description of the slingshot effect of an eclipse sequence, only one of the energetic goads that is pushing us out of old thinking and awakening new impulses. We seem newly open to green solutions, we’re examining matters of civil liberty and ethics, of justice overlooked and injustice done. We’re linking arms.
Have Manning and Assange shattered some of our national mythology about American imperialism, cast doubt on the war on terror? Has our new attitude about Middle Eastern politics got us re-thinking blanket acceptance of solidarity with the nation of Israel, while wishing well to the Egyptians as they renew their Arab Spring marches against a moderate president who has proven himself a creature of repressive politics? Will they, I wonder, remind us how a successful protest looks and feels? Are we paying that much attention?
We will probably need that inspiration, given the disparity between the political parties and the biggest scare tactic of recent memory, the “fiscal cliff.” It’s not a cliff, actually not even a slope but more like a speed bump. In fact, it’s legislation that could be changed at any moment if Congress decided to forgo politics in favor of the common good. The cliff was put in place by cynics who thought they could force an Appomattox-moment on budget concerns, with both parties so cowed by the dire possibilities of stringent cuts that they’d capitulate and surrender to compromise.
So far, however, Republican leadership has shown no intention of negotiating with the administration if it insists on folding the Bush tax cuts, the long-standing tax giveaway to the wealthy which added $1.8 trillion dollars to the deficit between 2002 and 2009. If not reversed, those cuts will amount to some $5+ trillion in corporate welfare in the next decade, curtailing spending in a manner we can only consider stringent and crippling to the middle and lower class.
Wrangling over spending (entitlements) vs. revenue (taxes,) the Grand Bargain of months ago is still on the table, although Obama is flexing his muscles, spending some of the political capital he earned early this month by including additional stimulus in the deal, and permanently eliminating the congressional role in deciding the debt ceiling. Obama seems open to a two-part solution, dealing with the most critical portion now, which includes mainstream tax cuts, then kicking the can down the road for a year on the rest. In Obama’s world, that’s tax cuts extended to 98 percent of Americans, 97 percent of businesses, which results in “fully removing half of the fiscal cliff.” As the administration has made clear for months now, there are a number of nail-biters included in this bargain, along with cuts to things that liberals hold dear. Activists are attempting to remediate the worst projections by flooding the White House with petitions, more on that later.
Republicans say that additional spending renders this a less-than-serious proposal and they’re fuming, but it’s really tax rates that are holding this up. Pubs are reluctant to piss off their base and throw both the rich and the military-industrial complex under the bus, unthinkable to a party that now identifies itself almost entirely with their wellbeing over national concerns. Waiting for Obama to sweeten the pot, they have become petulant and whiny, but they may have a long wait, as the Prez takes his populist argument on the road, pitching to the public and allowing Geithner to be his point-man with outraged Pubs, who find themselves between a rock and a hard spot.
As fearful as Republicans are of being blamed as the party that dragged their feet while the nation went over the fiscal cliff, supporting either revenue or anything Obama presents, for that matter, targets them to be “primaried” (replaced with a teapot) by an angry base flush with plutocratic money in the next election. A monster self-created; instant karma, don’t you think?
As Louisiana’s wee Republican governor, Bobby Jindal, made clear after the election, “We can no longer afford to be the party of stupid.” With a very clear national mandate for legislative compromise, then, we shall see which of them are teachable now, or if David Frum’s contention that the Republican “entertainment-industrial complex” (FOX News) has effectively murdered the party’s future.
Meanwhile, progressives are on a crusade to make it plain to the administration that no entitlement cuts will do. Neither Social Security nor Medicare are for-profit ventures, nor can they be seriously replaced by privatization. Tweaks in their funding will keep each solvent without national crisis, and I’m reminded once again, that if we had single payer health insurance in this country, medical costs would be under control and pizza restauranteurs wouldn’t be making fools of themselves over employee coverage. Bernie Sanders, supporting a No Deal Is Better Than A Bad Deal movement, offers a petition urging no hits on Social Security or Medicare, one of many urging the Democrats to hold firm in response to possible austerity cuts.
This business of being teachable is very present in the current energy. I’ve seen some amazing changes in people’s attitudes lately, real breakthroughs. Last week I quoted Yehunda Berg of the Kabbalah Centre who suggested that we are hindering rather than helping a person who is not ready to receive transformational information, and although I’m still mulling that, it appears likely when I think about trying to talk rational politics with those firmly in right-wing clutches. Still, we never know when the Light is ready to break through, shining down to show us a different reality entirely from the one we were so sure about. I thought about that this week at an open Alcoholics Anonymous meeting I attend monthly with my dear friend — 33 years sober — Fishin’ Jim.
I like AA folks, they’re self-reflecting, a hard-learned skill not everyone in the Pea Patch understands or appreciates. The topic at this month’s potluck was gratitude — a regular topic for a group of people who have come back from self-consigned hell — and one story caught my attention as an example of Light dawning. After years rejecting AA, a nice enough guy, hardworking and friendly but a confirmed drunk, blacked out, committed a serious crime and found himself in prison. Almost immediately, a fight broke out in the yard and the facility went into lock-down for three days, leaving most prisoners in their tiny cells. My friend found himself isolated for three days with nothing to do but read the only book there, left by the last inmate: AA’s Big Book. He did, just to pass the time and barely curious, and it began to change his outlook on life. He’s free now, sober for a handful of years and successfully rebuilding his life. He credits that moment as his turning point.
When the student is ready, the teacher appears. My friend had what A Course in Miracles calls “the little willingness.” That’s not full-blown willingness, mind you. It’s just the tiniest opening in the energy, a willingness to be MADE willing. That’s all it takes, when we’re ready, and I trust that millions of us are finding that little willingness now, suddenly aware that things aren’t the way we thought they were. It’s only within the landscape of the self — in relationship, first and foremost, with the splintered portions of self seeking wholeness — that change is accepted, creativity is inspired, turning points are discovered and embraced, fears are conquered and doubts are resolved. Such moments are dharmic blessing, coming directly from our higher self, in the quiet time, in the silence.
The speed bumps in our way — fiscal cliffs, Wikileaks, prison cells — slow us down long enough to think, to explore, to break through static thoughts with fresh insights. They take us by surprise, challenge what we know, lift us into our hearts to fully feel their truth, to palpate their vibration in our solar plexus. They demand that we take a bit of time to truly listen and perhaps, for the very first time, really hear, see, feel — when the student is ready — all that’s waiting for us in the Light.
Pay for work has always been subjective, but the point is, how many of us would pay $10 for a hamburger from McDonald’s so the workers can have a better wage? No-one I know.
That square at solstice might be a little scary. Better put back a few more bags of rice and beans.
Think I see where you’re coming from Patty. Ceres withheld (food) when what she valued most, ie fair pay = daughter, was stolen. Considering that the last time Neptune (dissolution) and Pluto (death) were conjunct (1891-92) was at 8 Gemini adds oomph to your point. Further considering that Neptune presently is septile to Pluto (51+ degrees) and it is an aspect involving karma, gives it the feel of destiny.
It is remarkable astrology; the timing of the U.S. progressed Sun reaching 8 degrees of Pisces, conjunct US natal Ceres and square US natal Uranus at 8 Gemini, at just the same time transiting Jupiter reaches 8 Gemini and is in a yod with Pluto at 8 Capricorn and Saturn at 8 Scorpio. It’s happening in a year in which Venus was at 8 Gemini (conj. US Uranus) in the solar return chart for the U.S., and she was sextile Mercury at 8 Leo (near US north node) which formed a yod with Pluto (death) at 8 Capricorn (business).
Then there was the recent lunar eclipse with Moon at 6 Gemini and Sun at 6 Sagittarius close to the US Uranus at 8 Gemini. In the Winter Solstice 12/21/12, Venus will also be at 6 Sagittarius echoing the Sun’s position in the eclipse. In January, Jupiter stations direct at 6 Gemini echoing the Moon’s position in the eclipse, then moving forward again to conjunct the US Uranus in March. It seems to draw our attention to the period of time between the December solstice and the March Equinox.
Not only that but in February there will be a Full Moon at 7 Virgo (agriculture) with the Sun at 7 Pisces, who will be conjunct Chiron (pain in order to become aware), and this creates a T-square with the US natal Uranus and the progressed US Sun conjunct natal Ceres. Looking at transiting Ceres herself in the Winter Solstice she is the Gemini focal point of a yod between the north node (Scorpio) sextile Mars (Capricorn), and Mars will be conjunct the U.S. Pluto. Three months later, in the Equinox chart Ceres in Gemini squares Venus in Pisces.
No doubt this is more than just the American fast food industry. The ramifications of this astrology could include farming, the grocery industry and everything else that comes between the Earth and it’s inhabitants. Thanks for your alternate viewpoint Patty, much food for thought.
be
Be, I would interpret it more as the demise of fast food. We’ve already seen what happened to twinkies, and there is nothing inexpensive about eating at any of the fast food restaurants. Remember the ditty, ”…for 15 cents, a nickel and a dime, at Burger Chef you eat better every time.” It’s time came and went; high oil prices and higher wages are pretty much the last straw for any business. Looks like beans and rice straight ahead, for a lot of us given the high cost of health insurance, food, taxes, and utilities. On the other hand, my son tells me that there is a new oil refinery getting ready to open soon, and what with all the oil fields in North Dakota producing more oil than anyplace else, the prices will soon drop back down to under a dollar a gallon, and we will begin a period of prosperity like none we have ever known. He even thinks the president will be so popular that we will want to overturn the term limits laws so he can be reelected another term, and every family will have its loaf of bread (ok, so I added the last phrase in deference to the movie, “There will be Blood.” LOL
Fast food strikes in NYC hit Wendy’s, Burger King, and McDonald’s as workers demand better pay. This happened last Thursday as Venus (conj. Saturn) sextiled Mars (conj. Pluto) the day after the Lunar Eclipse at 6+ Gemini. This could be a preview of the transiting Jupiter in Gemini conjunct the U.S. Uranus configuration because they will also be square the U.S. natal (Sibly) Ceres at 8+ Pisces.
Since transiting Chiron was in this degree last summer and will return again in February, it will exacerbate the American food-workers (Ceres) wound as it adds fuel to the energy of the Yods prominent in the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. On the day of the Winter Solstice, Venus will be at 6+ Sagittarius (opposite the Lunar Eclipse on 11/28, the day before the strike), and within a 2 degree orb of being opposite the U.S. Uranus and it’s conjunction with transiting Jupiter (focal point of the Yod with trans. Saturn and Pluto).
Transiting Chiron will not be the only centaur involved in this complex assault on the U.S. Uranus. Standing next to the U.S. Ceres is Nessus at 9+ Pisces, and true to his nature, will strive for conscious awareness of the malcontent food workers plight. I can only assume there will be other dis-advantaged and disgruntled underpaid workers ready to bring about needed changes through disruptive action. A lot of people depend on fast food services every day, all day long. They will pay attention when this happens.
Like DivaCarla says “reality is not what we’ve been living along”. By next spring transiting Uranus will be closing the gap between where he saunters now and his next square with Pluto in May. By the Spring Equinox he will be at 7 Aries 59 and conjunct Mars, and square the Equinox Moon at 8 Cancer. World events will likely mirror what happens in the U.S. as the result of the December 21, 2012 Solstice yod and square to natal Uranus. Uranus is the Reality Wake-up Call for the planet. Be prepared for some excitement!
be
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/29/fast-food-strikes-nyc_n_2213548.html
Chiron is the teacher. Chiron brings unconscious directives symbolized by outer planets to consciousness in order to heal old wounds. In the sign of Pisces this could be through dissolution of structure, spirituality and even dreaming. It can include a selflessness, creative work and charity too. It will hurt; part of the Chiron package.
Be, this really helps me understand the mysterious Chiron more, and it speaks to what my spiritual teachers say about how this time of transformation works, and why it will be so hard for so many to understand and endure. Reality is not what we’ve been living all along.
My goodness, GaryB, how lyric of you! I enjoyed reading that [much more, frankly, than I would have enjoyed DOING it!] Thanks for the rush.
And I understand your energy dilemma, DivaCarla. I’m just thrilled I’m not seeing Hummers everywhere I look, as I did during the Bush years, so we’re making SOME progress, anyhow. I’m a big fan of algae — pond scum — as an alternative fuel source; keep hoping that experiment will work into something, since I can’t think of any OTHER good use for it, unlike corn [ethanol.] I was daydreaming the other day about what life might have been like if Tesla hadn’t been thwarted at every turn.
You’ve done it again, be — illustrated the variables moving the future into place. I suppose the trick is to make dear friends with Uranian energy. Quite a trick, but a thrill ride, at the least. And thanks, as always, for your prescience.
“Have we become teachable now?” “Are we paying that much attention?” We, being citizens of the USA, have a particular symbol in our country’s birthchart that speaks to your questions Jude. The U.S. Sibly birth chart’s Uranus looks primed and ready to fulfill its mission even as we ponder these questions. You called it the Awakener recently; it represents breakthroughs in accepted ideas and beliefs. It’s remote position (opposite the very consciously-aware ascendant of the chart) in the 6th house near the descendant, has probably not been so integrated into the national self image. More likely we’ve attributed that behavior to the “other” until recently; the demonstrators; rioters, etc. Astrology says it’s time for us to become acutely aware of our own unleashed Uranian attributes.
Being in the sign of Gemini, our national Uranus will express itself through communication, data, transporting (think dock strikes), and it is quick and slippery like quicksilver. It’s adaptible, can be superficial and is decidedly dual in nature. This year our birthday chart (solar return) featured Venus in the same degree as natal Uranus. This is the year Uranus expresses our country’s values.
On the thoroughly exploited date of 12/21/12, the Winter Solstice (a tool astrology has historically utilized to divine the future for, at minimum, the following three months) features Jupiter conjunct the U.S. natal Uranus at 8+ Gemini. Jupiter symbolizes understanding, luck, belief systems, things foreign in nature, and doing whatever in a large way. “Whatever” referring to things Gemini represents; data, communication, duality, etc. Combining Jupiter’s energy with Uranus’ energy was demonstrated in June, 2010, September, 2010, and then late in 2010 through early 2011 when they transited in conjunction in late Pisces and early Aries.
Transiting Jupiter conjunct US Uranus find themselves in the stimulating position of being the focal point for a powerful yod driven by the sextile of trans. Pluto and Saturn. These two double their power by being in each others signs, Capricorn and Scorpio. The symbols of death and rebirth, shared resources, survival instincts, along with containment, achievement gained over time, time itself, are doubled by being in each other signs. What’s more, this isn’t just the Winter Solstice we’re talking about. This same pattern continues through to the Spring Equinox on March 20, 2013, and another 3 month (at least) of being influenced by this powerhouse of awakening, transformation and containment.
But this is the clincher as to why we will be teachable and be paying attention. Transiting Chiron in Pisces aspects all of the players in the Yod, including our natal Uranus. He squares Jupiter (+ US Uranus), trines Saturn and sextiles Pluto. Chiron is the teacher. Chiron brings unconscious directives symbolized by outer planets to consciousness in order to heal old wounds. In the sign of Pisces this could be through dissolution of structure, spirituality and even dreaming. It can include a selflessness, creative work and charity too. It will hurt; part of the Chiron package.
Jupiter is the ruler of the ascendant in the US Sibly chart. It is Jupiter that will join the break-through sky-god Uranus in the U.S. Sibly chart. That which we are most aware of in ourselves will facilitate that which is most unknown about ourselves. We will pay attention and we will learn.
be
Such good writing, Judith!
You nailed something with this sentence:
It’s only within the landscape of the self — in relationship, first and foremost, with the splintered portions of self seeking wholeness — that change is accepted, creativity is inspired, turning points are discovered and embraced, fears are conquered and doubts are resolved.
You give better words to something I have been contemplating as I explore the true nature of sexuality. Sexuality is the means we’ve been given to discover that “relationship … with the splintered portions of self seeking wholeness” that happened when we dropped into a body, into the illusion, confusion, profusion of delight and suffering know as form.
The macro insanity of the world will respond to the same healing as individuals, and it’s essentially sexual healing. In my opinion.
Meanwhile, I have to replace my car, and I’m studying the new technology. When I look at the electric models, I get this hallucination of plugging in the charger and seeing a mountain top blown off. It’s not just what’s turning the wheels on the car that matters, it’s where the energy is sourced. If we are going to develop electric cars, we have to harness our local nuclear fusion reactor, the Sun, to power them. Car buyers have to be aware of this and demand the change, not just get happy because we can drive past the gas pump without stopping.
Judith,
The long shut door with rusted hinges is creaking open. This election pushed it open just a crack and a hint of light is floating in. What is on the other side is a great curiosity. Let us all hope that the door continues to open and the ‘thugs don’t kick it closed. Time to oil the hinges and kick it open!
“It’s only within the landscape of the self — in relationship, first and foremost, with the splintered portions of self seeking wholeness — that change is accepted, creativity is inspired, turning points are discovered and embraced, fears are conquered and doubts are resolved.” This brings me to thoughts of the upcoming ski season where one looks down from the high peak upon some gnarly moguls. Unsure, one swallows and tentatively proceeds into the first bump using every bit of focus and intensity. You look for that rhythm, fight the fear and push away the cries of the tortured leg muscles. But there it is mid slope-a feeling– of it all coming together. Fun filled freedom. You push harder to make it through the last stretch to the bottom and when you turn around to look back up the hill a wonderful feeling of accomplishment envelopes you!