Dear Friend and Reader:
Watching CNN this morning, in particular it’s coverage of MLK Day and the pre-coverage of the inauguration tomorrow, I felt like I woke up in Cuba. After an endless decade of hearing little other than how urgent it is that we bomb yet another country and suspect our neighbors of treason, the conversation was suddenly about economic parity and how a black man becoming president helps sets us all free. After a decade or so of stealing from one another and credit checks to join a church and contests for how mean people can be while drinking the most expensive cup of coffee ever made, suddenly it’s a day of national service. Admittedly I am not watching Fox, where I am sure they’re predicting nuclear winter.
Watching the news today reminds me of a conversation I had with a young woman one afternoon in the former East Germany. It was soon enough after the Berlin Wall came down and Germany was reunited that everyone remembered what it was like before. This was in 1998, on my first extended trip to Europe. It was still an exciting time in that part of Germany because you could get stuff like socks and blue jeans.
She said that in her experience, one morning everyone woke up and was living in a capitalists society, after having spent most of their lives in a communist country.
How strange this was did not escape her perception. She added that reminded her that Germany could turn back to a communist or socialist or fascist country just as quickly, and that this revealed something about human nature. We’re really not as attached to our reality as we may seem; we’re more open to change or, as she was suggesting, more open to being persuaded than we admit. We do what we’re told, and we follow the trends that are going on around us.
The conversation did not include astrology. What she didn’t know was that when the Berlin Wall (the symbol of communist supremacy and the supposed Iron Curtain separating the East from the West — what an image!) came down, Uranus was conjunct Saturn. That’s the astrological picture of a structure exploding or being broken apart, as if from within. It’s a fairly rare conjunction, happening just twice per century.
Now Saturn and Uranus are at opposition. This is like a New Moon becoming a Full Moon: planets that were conjunct in 1989 are now opposing one another today, and we are seeing this like the fulfillment of something, or something has come 180 degrees (as you prefer, because both are true). We are waking up to this fact; we are noticing that we’ve arrived someplace we’ve been heading for a long time.
Because this is a new phase of a cycle that happens through the course of history, we have some sense of where we are, but the thing about all cycles involving Uranus is that they’re unpredictable. Uranus always adds the element of surprise. One surprise I just heard, listening to cable news with one ear, is that the White House has named Robert Gates, the secretary of defense, as the “designated successor” in the event of some kind of catastrophe tomorrow that takes the lives of Obama, Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi, who are in the normal line of succession).
History is not, though, as simple as a pendulum swinging. Being “liberal” is not an opinion. It’s a commitment to act in ways that you want but whch may make you nervous because you’re challenging inner authority; and it’s a commitment to the freedom of others to do things that you don’t agree with. Being free is about letting go of toxic self-control and the deisre to control everyone else. And we are nowhere — nowhere — near the kind of freedom that is posisble for humanity. We are still an uptight, smug bunch of people if you ask me. We’re still afraid to say hello to one another most days. I’ll believe I live in a free country when people feel safe greeting one another on the street.
Onward,
Eric Francis
The wall came down in 1989, the year of the conjunction. Unification of Germany was not until the next year.
Not to be picky or anything, but the Wall came down in 89. I remember (and double-checked) as it was an exceptional year for me; someone sent me a chunk of the Wall for Xmas in 1989.
Nov. 9 to be precise.
The USA could easily become a communist country over night.
ah… thanks… I was wandering around in another decade. When you said “soon enough” I was thinking in months, not years…
Not sure what you mean…I was in Erfurt in 1998, which was less than a decade after the reunification…which was in 1990. So in reality it was about eight years on. Kids who were 19 remembered growing up under “communism.” They remembered what they were taught in school…etc
E~ was your “1998” ’89 for the rest of us?
I remember watching “Wings of Desire” that week and thinking that Peter Handke (the German poet who wrote the screenplay) had finally done what poets do: (re)invent the world.
When the Wall came down the next week, I raised a glass to him…
M
Slippery slope… hmmm… theory goeth before a Fall? Open-to-Openness is almost boneheaded in its simplicity, but *before* one begins the assay (i.e., “what level of cataclysmic turgidity am I dealing with *now?*” ), there is the care and feeding of my own Shadow material.
Which I do every nmaddog* day.
Sometimes twice a day.
(*”nmaddog = it’s )o+ Rx, you know. . . )
It’s not infallible (as long as my voice is bigger than Silence), but better than perduring in a state of seventh-guessing.
That is why the US Constitution was so carefully crafted. I really will fight for someone’s right to worship – as long as no crime is committed against individuals nor crime planned against any other groups. It’s a fine line. Same with science – it’s all good – until they change our dna wrongly, and/or blow everything up.
I dislike government interference as much as any libertarian, but oversight seems to have failed where money and power were at stake.
Well – this is the slippery slope and the dangerous territory. Obviously, though, libertarianism is about expressing freedom without encroaching on the rights of others. Actually we who value freedom have little clue the extent to we have been legislated out of existence the past decade.
There might be some scientific experimenting that we need to hold hands around, like HAARP and some others, before they blow up the planet. There might be some religions that need to open to openness too (I confess a strong desire to kick some religious hineys from time to time).
we can do our part by helping the president achieve success – go to usaservice dot org and sign up. You will find hundreds of things you can do to help your community, or get ideas for events for your community.
Welcome fellow Aquarians (we’re all Aquarians today)…
Eric writes: “it’s a commitment to the freedom of others to do things that you don’t agree with. ”
This is, of course, the 64,000$ question. What to do when ‘Not agreeing with’ involves another attempting to define or delimit my choices.
My answer continues to be: I am open to openness; repeat: OPEN to OPENness. Otherwise, it’s “hit the road.” When a malific-Other does not agree to said road being hit, there are other forms of persuasion to consider.
This is the point in the question where self-awareness, creativity, humor and certain willingness to sail out *waaaaay* beyond convention comes in handy. Inotherwords: Art.
More art. But let’s call it socioyoga this time.
…. the Berlin Wall came down when Uranus was conjunct Saturn. That’s the astrological picture of a structure exploding or being broken apart, as if from within. It’s a fairly rare conjunction …
The two rulers of Aquarius, Uranus conjunct Saturn, now that is a footprint of the Age of Aquarius!