Pluto in Capricorn: China & Human Rights Dialogue re 2008 Summer Olympics

As the dialogue about potential boycotting and sponsors pulling out develops over the coming weeks & months, consider how huge an opportunity these games are for big business to establish or deepen a footing in China.

No one wants to turn down the opportunities that a presence in China will mean, economically, in the coming decades.

And yet no one really wants to be seen supporting China’s human rights record.

The US president recently said that he will attend the Olympics this summer, stating that the games are about the athletes and not about politics. Almost smooth, pres, almost. How many of us are in the dark enough to think he would say or do anything to endanger the development of footholds of American business anywhere in the world?

One angle on Pluto in Capricorn illustrated in this ongoing conversation is the prioritization of business concerns at all costs. Capricorn represents business and Pluto wealth & power,  but more importantly this combo in part represents the drive to achieve big things via business activities.

On the collective level, Pluto shows us the depths of our evolving desires. Pluto ploughs up the settled earth and shows us what’s under the surface. Sometimes we forget we need to see whatever’s down there - there’s a reason it’s buried, after all! But we need to learn just what it is, and to see how pursuing it and admitting it into consciousness can change us…so that we can decide if those desires are really getting us where we want to go.

There’s nothing wrong with business, and there’s nothing wrong with money. Yet if we use the pursuit of either to cut ourselves off from a part of ourselves, Pluto’s transit through this sign will cause us to become aware of it. We’ll have to face ourselves with new and unprecedented levels of honesty. We then have the choice about how to respond to what we’ve been doing and creating, and allowing that we might need to change is the key to smoothing out the typically-dreaded transits of Pluto.

The evolving conversation about which is more important, human rights or business, is a fantastic illustration of how we’re navigating Pluto’s recent entry into Capricorn. For cultures more or less disconnected from a feeling of being a part of life as a whole, these might not seem like real questions.

And yet more and more individuals are reconnecting to themselves, and in the process reconnecting to life as a whole. One of the opportunities of Pluto in Capricorn is changing the structures (Cap.) from the inside out (Pluto), which certainly does involve individuals affecting the concensus by shifting, and changing their minds about how to participate in the world.

And it’s possible that in your life, there’s a microcosm of this issue up for review. A scale of it that’s all about you and how you treat yourself. Where are you in the human rights vs. business conversation? What are you learning about how you prioritize things?

March 21, 2008 By Tom Jacobs

Pluto in Capricorn: Bear Stearns, JPMorgan Chase and The Fed

The day the news about Bear Stearns broke, I heard a surprised radio report about the surprising situation and drastic measures the Fed authorized, and I thought, “Geez, if that isn’t Pluto in Capricorn…”

Bear Stearns hit a liquidity (aka cash) crisis as a result of the shifting structures of the housing crisis stuff in the US that you can read about all over every media outlet. JPMorgan Chase offered a bailout, backed by the Fed.

I felt we needed to tease this out and take a moment to smell the aromas of the complexity of the developing scenario. Aside from what it is and means, what it is and means that the Fed stepped in and engineered the solution is huge in this.

But, then, all of a sudden we’re looking today at JPMC buying Bear Stearns at $2 per share, drastically lower than recent Bear Stearns prices.

If you allow that this situation represents that existing structures (Capricorn) need to be dramatically, irrevocably overturned (Pluto), you can understand that we need to see these how things are really working, how they’re really set up. And if you get this, you will not take this situation to mean that we are doomed, which is the vibe coming over the airwaves.

But here’s what I have to say about this whole thing: Notice if your belly is contracting.

Notice your feelings about the idea of a threat to your/our financial security.

Watch whatever feelings might be arising about this, and understand the collective, global need to see how huge banks/corporations/governments are set up so that we can consciously improve what might not be working.

I’m reminded that there is a huge invitation open to us right now as time seems to be speeding up, as we near whatever big shift we’re collectively headed for. Most of us aware of it will feel it as a constant challenge to remain connected to our feelings.

I’m recommending you don’t shut down from the fear that’s coming over the airwaves and ethernets. Also that you keep your eyes and ears open to how this develops, and see how this giant thing might hold keys to understanding the personal, smaller-scale situations in your own life relative to Pluto turning over any of your existing structures.

Some questions to ask with this transit, individually and collectively, are who’s in charge?, why?, how does this thing really work and can we say it really does work?

Tom is available for private intuitive astrology consultations. See his website for more info and contact information.

March 17, 2008 By Tom Jacobs

Profile & Current Events: New York Governor Eliot Spitzer

First of all, I usually stay away from analyzing the astrology of public persons who meet with dramatic turns. Mostly, I just never want to be the astrologer who says, “Oh, lookie! You can see why [name of public figure] [verbed] [horrible and tragic life circumstance]!” A fundamental truth of humans is that we have free will, and people respond to the energies being called up in their lives with choice.

Now, our choices are based in our conditioning - who we think we are, what we believe we’re supposed to do, etc. - and I’m clear that the themes of our conditioning can be seen in our charts. So of course I know I don’t have to be that kind of astrologer, but it usually doesn’t interest me on that level enough to dive into their charts.

But.

But as I listened a second time to the public statement by Eliot Spitzer following revelations that he’s been a customer of a prostitution ring, I had to go straight to his chart. Maybe I’d got used to hearing remorse or regret in the voices of politicians who are revealed to be two-timers or whatever?, yet what I heard in his voice was impatience.

An impatience to have to deal with the whole situation.

Which surprised me, so I was drawn into his chart (June 10, 1959, Bronx NY, time unknown).

First thing to see is South Node in Aries, with the ruler Mars in Leo conjunct Venus, with both of them quincunxing (inconjuncting - 150 degrees) a retrograde Saturn in Capricorn…which is square the nodes. With transiting Saturn retrograding in early Virgo trining that Saturn…and nearing a conjunction with his natal Pluto, retrograde in early Virgo…

Yeah, yeah, I know - that’s a mouthful. I’ll spell out what it said to me:

South Node in Aries: He’s coming from a karmic past full of Marsy experience. He’s used to the fight. He expects the world to be about Aries issues, and he will be drawn into them in this life in one way or another.

South Node ruler Mars in Leo, conjunct Venus: His role centers on being proud, good with people, direct, a man of action.

natal Saturn retro in Capricorn and square the nodes: The issues of work, balancing life in the public sphere, the sense of and the right sort of maturity to develop, are unresolved issues (squares to the nodes represent something we know some about but need to learn to make different choices about).

that Saturn quincunx that Mars-Venus in Leo: Whatever is misunderstood about work, life in the public sphere, and appropriate maturity development are having what feels a power struggle within him - and everything in astrology works in our external lives so that we can have opportunities to explore our internal conflicts.

transiting Saturn trining natal Saturn and conjuncting natal Pluto: Major lessons of authority (Saturn in Cap) & self-responsibility (Pluto in Virgo) are being helped along by transiting Saturn.

Oh, but then hey, the transiting North Node is right on his natal Chiron, at 27 Aquarius…

Putting all this together, I can’t help but feel that the opportunity he has is to be humbled & connect with his vulnerabilities (Tr. NN on Chiron), to choose to allow his reputation to be reframed in terms of the reality of his behavior and choices (Saturn transits). And to spend some time with himself to check in with how and why he does what he does (Saturn retro transit to conjunct natal retro Pluto).

Oh but then with the asteroid Arjunsuri (20300) natally on his Libra North Node, conjunct Pallas Athene and Juno in Libra, there’s a call to learn to listen to others (NN in Libra) who stick with him (Juno-Pallas Athene in Libra), to learn a new level of give and take (Libra NN) that works in conjunction with the parameters of his conscience (Arjunsuri) and how co-operative life with others works (Juno-Pallas Athene on Libra NN). But also to allow his conscience to guide him (Arjunsuri on the NN).

The latest news tonight was that he’s planning to spend time with his family in the short term - no word as of yet if he’ll stay in office. Developing the stuff mentioned the previous paragraph could be very much needed, and to make time and space for whatever in our lives is much needed, some of us have the knack of clearing our schedules in sometimes rather dramatic ways, just to make sure we have the opportunity.

March 10, 2008 By Tom Jacobs

Eating the Wild: Notes on Hillary Clinton

Our mothers understood something essential: the green is poisonous to civiliation. If we eat the wild, it begins to work inside us, altering us, changing us. Soon, if we eat too much, we will no longer fit the suit that has been made for us. Our hair will begin to grow long and ragged. Our gait and how we hold our body will change. A wild light begins to gleam in our eyes. Our words start to sound strange, nonlinear, emotional. Unpractical. Poetic.                      Stephen Harrod Buhner, The Secret Teachings of Plants, p. 145

A student tonight asked to work on Hillary Clinton’s or Barack Obama’s chart for her lesson. I knew the birth time of Obama was uncertain, so I looked up Clinton’s. Hers is, too, of course, but I didn’t know that - I only recently began following politics again. (Awareness of these things is one way to re-enter the world, after years of holing up on what might be called the spiritual plane - at any rate, a plane less involved in the physical world.)

Her South Node in Scorpio with Mercury-Venus in Scorpio and Jupiter in Sagittarius conjunct it tells of an acuity in the realm of politicking, in understanding the ways that people are, think and feel. A familiarity with the workings of power (Scorpio), how it affects people and how people affect it (Mercury-Venus in Scorpio). And with Jupiter there in that particular sign, an understanding of how to inspire people by formulating and expressing vision. And yet with the South Node ruler Pluto square the nodes, she’s her own worst enemy when it comes to the expression of her desire to be an aggressive, powerful authority figure (Saturn-Pluto-Mars in Leo square the nodes).

She’s got a karmic history of, on one level or another, going for the big office, or expressing the big idea (the whole story of her healthcare reform proposal from some years ago tells this story in parallel to her bid for the nomination, by the way), and in the end feeling that she didn’t do some part of it right (squares to the nodes indicate energies we need to learn to make different choices about - typically they tell of choices in other lives that didn’t serve us well because we didn’t understand all we needed to in order to navigate some choice successfully).

And then that North Node in Taurus. Taurus being the sign of slowing down, and the ruler of it, Venus, in Scorpio conjunct Mercury. If she were a client, I’d advise her to come to her senses.

Literally.

There’s a highly developed strength of observation and sensing of others with that conjunction in Scorpio on the South Node. And yet how much is her ability to listen and sense, and probe into deeper layers of reality, turned on herself? The aggressive expression that is the hallmark of her public persona (Saturn-Pluto-Mars in Leo) represents what is, from the viewpoint of the journey of the soul, an overdoing that I suspect is a repeat of a karmic scenario from her past, an investment in a deep desire that doesn’t actually get her where she wants to be (the respected authority who has the ultimate say in something).

With this node in Taurus, all things natural are called for. Natural ways of being, of perceiving. Feeling life through her body as part of her whole being. Connecting with the natural side of anything is what’s foreign territory for her. Taurus also calls for the development of a personal relationship with the natural world, with nature or, perhaps, Nature.

If she came to me as a client, I wouldn’t necessarily advise her to drop out, head to the wilderness, grow her own food and get off the grid, but I would advise to see how to heal the memories of the karmic past of not getting recognition as the authority figure - that she craves, that takes so much of her energy - and reconnect with herself as an extension of the natural world.

If she loses the nomination, her challenge for growth will be in understanding that what she’s offering doesn’t speak to the majority of people at this time. Taking it personally, which would be the reaction from habit, would only fuel the momentum of the karmic wound, with all the Leonine Saturnian-Plutonian-Martian action covering up the pain under even more layers of thwarted ambition.

My take on what does speak to us, what we’re hankering for in the present moment (aside from ideas for solutions for current concerns), is someone with heart. It’s true that Obama doesn’t have the experience that Clinton has, and yet it’s evident that more people are more willing to trust him. Anyone connected with him- or herself can’t trust people so obviously disconnected from heart-informed ways of being.

As Pluto continues its fresh transit through Capricorn, we’re getting the opportunity to see any assumptions we might have about what it would mean to have a woman in the White House. As I wrote here a few weeks ago regarding these assumptions, would she bring a compassionate stance to the office? Would having a woman in the highest office in the land mean having a heart-centered person as the nation’s chief executive? Would we automatically have an emotionally centered individual (a prevalent assumption about womanness) running the show, checking in with her heart instead of just her head (a prevalent assumption of manness)?

Anyone checking in with how they feel in their bodies when they hear her speak will be very clear that the answer is no.

And while I admire Clinton’s dedication, tenacity and clarity of purpose, I would hope she can learn to slow down. My wish for her is not just to learn to remember and eventually enjoy smelling the roses, but also to toss them into her mouth and chomp away with abandon, letting the natural world enter her, and share its emotion, and let its nonlinearity, unpracticality and poetics speak to her through her body.

(In case it’s not clear yet, the opening quote kind of hints at my wish for Clinton, whether or not she wins the nomination.)

Tom is available for heart- and soul-centered consultations. See his website for more information and contact details.

March 3, 2008 By Tom Jacobs

Pluto in Capricorn: Discovering Assumptions

Capricorn is the sign of structures and the glue that holds social and political groups together. 

I’m listening to political reporting on the radio more than ever these days. What struck me today is the assumptions of some random citizens interviewed for some piece about some of the candidates. From their statements, these are the questions that some of us might not be asking themselves:

Does Hillary Clinton’s gender mean that she would bring heart & compassion to the office?

Does Barak Obama’s skin color mean that he would look out for minorities?

Does John McCain’s military history mean that he would work to defend this country?

Any general assumptions that we may have about what the members of any group would do because of their identification with it need to be reviewed.

The focus on the collective that Capricorn represents naturally calls up questions about the realities of the individuals making up that collective, as deeply entering any of the archetypes will naturally call up its axis partner, the opposing sign. Membership is more of an issue for the sign of Cancer (belongingness), but as Pluto begins its trek through Capricorn, assumptions about the structure of any group - and the realities of the people associated with it - might come up. 

Or, perhaps, should.

February 2, 2008 By Tom Jacobs