History in Slow Motion (Or: Who Has the Power?)

Today is this week’s big day: the Aries Sun square Pluto in Capricorn. Both Uranus and Pluto are activating the Aries Point – which the Sun has been lighting up like a Christmas tree — and ALL of the current news is “personal/political” on a scale that few could have dreamed up.

Take, for example, a sampling of headlines from Democracy Now! yesterday:

•    The Supreme Court of the U.S. held its final day of an historic session on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. An issue at the heart of the healthcare law, it’s the individual mandate requiring most people buy health insurance by 2014 or pay a tax penalty;

•    Despite a U.N. brokered cease-fire in Syria, dozens of people were killed Tuesday in the continuation of violence that began with the Arab Spring uprisings over a year ago (our first real taste of Uranus-Pluto), with over 9,000 dead in that country so far;

•    Scientists are warning that damage from global warming will become irreversible, and that this is “the critical decade” for curbing it;

•    The Arizona State Senate has voted to ban most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy (six other states have passed similar laws in the last two years);

•    Environmental activist Tim DeChristopher, currently serving a two-year sentence for posing as a bidder to prevent oil and gas drilling on thousands of acres of public land, was recently removed from a minimum security prison ward into an isolated cell where his ability to communicate with the outside world and even read books is restricted;

•    Members of the Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn, New York, rejected a proposal to hold a referendum on boycotting goods from Israel, garnering significant media coverage for the effort;

•    A JetBlue pilot emerged from the cockpit ranting about threats from Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, and urged passengers to recite the Lord’s Prayer as he marched through the cabin – until four passengers restrained him while a co-pilot and another pilot who happened to be on board landed the plane.

And most notably, this has been the week the Trayvon Martin shooting became a household topic, with the private tragedy of one neighborhood becoming emblematic of race relations in the U.S. – and perhaps a breaking point or turning point of some sort.

In all of those disparate events, there runs the common thread of the Sun-Pluto square, which is like a question: Who has the power? Or, what is my power in this situation? People are experts at counting themselves out, and then trying to find their power where it is not. In some of the news stories listed, you may identify with a feeling of powerlessness. In some, it is clear that entities with undue power are abusing it. In others, we are reminded of simple ways individuals and groups without ‘authority’ can, in fact, wield some true power.

We are seeing the idea of finding one’s power where it actually is not dramatized in the public sphere with the gun issue — how many people relate to the whole gun thing as a way of getting power? Or, how many people recognize that the attitude ‘I can go to the doctor and too bad for you’ is a power trip?

Sun-Pluto is a study in where personal power meets something bigger, and then how we handle ourselves under various circumstances. You may not see yourself and how your life is unfolding in any of those headlines, but step back and take a close look at your life anyway. We all have some power, and we pretty much all give it up at times, abuse or misuse it at times, or fail to recognize that its unconscious use is undermining our relationships in some way. Once in a while we see it, get a handle on it, and manage to adjust our course in ways that matter – acting with integrity. This is one of those times to give that a try. And keep in mind that Venus in Taurus is square centaur planet Nessus in Aquarius – so sexual power trips are a strong undercurrent today. But as mentioned earlier in the week, retrograde Mercury in Pisces sextile Venus offers up some common sense – and not a moment too soon.