ON THE PERILS OF TAKING ONE’S EYE OFF THE BALL

                                                        – Tim Lyons 01/23/17

Horoscopes: Donny Trump with transits; United States with transits

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In my last blog entry, I talked about obstacles coming up in the horoscope of a n’er do well chap named Donny Trump. Those obstacles had to do with Saturn, and now that they’ve come up – though admittedly they haven’t come up strongly enough to deny him “the greased pig in the field game of American politics” (Ambrose Bierce’s definition of Presidency) – we can see that the voice of judgment have come along just as Saturn has moved into an opposition with Trump’s Sun and conjunction with his Moon. Some of these difficulties have come from women – millions of them, it seems – which shouldn’t surprise anyone, with Saturn conjoining Dangerous Donny’s natal Moon. And, of course, Donny may have more to come, as these transits will return, due to Saturn’s upcoming retrograde movement, in July, August, and September of this year.

That troubles have come to the mastery of trumpery may induce many a “liberal” or “progressive” to jump for joy, but I would advise those folks not to get carried away – or, I should say, not to take their collective eyes off of the great ball of wax known as “geopolitical gamesmanship.”

On the same day that then-President-Elect-Donny gave his “first press conference” (an old tradition, that, always full of misplaced favoritism and politeness in which reporters seem so anxious to keep their seat at the rhetorical table that they often forget to ask important questions, now metamorphosed, in the pudgy and fidgety hands of D. Trump, into a celebration of insult and ignorance), the United States moved thousands of troops toward Russia’s border, apparently as a response to purported Russian interference in U.S. affairs, particularly purported interference in U.S. elections (i.e. opportunities, as Mr. Bierce would have it, to vote for the man of another man’s choice) and a variety of (no doubt both purported and real) humanitarian violations perpetrated by Russia.

The development should give us pause. Putting aside the hypocrisy of the action – have we forgotten the number of times that the United States interfered in the elections of other countries, including but not limited to Russia, or that the United States has perpetrated its own apparently-endless series of war crimes against Iraq and other nations, leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths and the rise of the Islamic State? – putting all that aside, should we wonder at the ways that the “free press” in this country (if we can call it such after eight years of attacks from the Obama administration, not to mention the totalitarian tendencies of Mr. Shrub) has spent so much time on allegations and much less time on troop movements.

Let us note that the movement of Saturn to oppose Trump’s Sun and conjoin his Moon also brings it into challenging aspect with the United States’ Mars-Neptune square, with Mars at 22 Gemini and Neptune at 21 Virgo.

I have spoken of the United States Mars-Neptune square before, noting it as one of the three major problematic afflictions in the U.S. horoscope (the other two being the Sun-Saturn square and the Mercury-Pluto opposition), each of which involves this country’s relations with other nations or groups, and each of one has a clear historical association with warfare. More particularly, the Mars-Neptune square has a connection with the tendency of the United States to, in case after case, see other nations or groups as the instigators of unacceptable aggression (Mars in the 7^th house: open enemies), to foment delusion through the propagation of a deceptive national ideology (Neptune in the 9^th) based in inequality (Virgo having to do with inequality: American exceptionalism:), and to go to war (Mars) based on a series of deceptions (Neptune).

In case after case, the United States has gone to war after the government had lied to the people. The 2003 invasion of Iraq and the much earlier decision to bomb North Vietnam offer obvious and egregious examples, but we can add to them the U.S. entry into World War I (look up “Creel Commission”), the ways we got into World War II (see George Morgenstern’s “The Actual Road to Pearl Harbor,” in Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace (1953), edited by Harry Elmer Barnes), the U.S. attack on Iraq in 1991, and, in developments now tossed down the memory hole, the invasion of Mexico in 1846 (see below) and the centuries-long slaughter of the native peoples of this continent. Of course, many of those developments involved solar arc directions, a different kettle of fish than transits; nevertheless, present and upcoming (July-September) transits should, at the very least, give us pause.

We have a situation in which the public has been fed all sorts of allegations, the content seeming to change by the day, about various sorts of Russian interference, with the most well-known having to do with election interference and some sort of tapes that purportedly show Trump in some sort of compromised situation. Yet as these allegations come out, transiting (TR) Saturn squares natal (N) Neptune in the United States horoscope and moves to oppose N Mars, a pair of aspects fraught with danger. With Neptune in the 9^th house of the national horoscope, U.S. citizens may convince themselves that the deception (Neptune) lies in other countries (9^th house: foreign places) and has do with inequality (Virgo), but the aspect occurs in the United States horoscope, not in Russia’s.

At what point did so-called progressives start taking the CIA’s allegations as statements of fact?

Saturn represents, among other things, the reality principle and the force of contraction. As we have seen, TR Saturn has brought reality home to roost for Mr. Donny. However, the U.S. natal Neptune foments delusions of all sorts related to foreign countries, and though we should certainly have a concern about Mr. Trump, we shouldn’t let that concern induce us to take our eyes off the ball. Massing United States troops on the Russian border seems to this observer an inconceivably idiotic action, yet one consistent with many of the provocation perpetrated by the Obama administration vis a vis Russia.

Of course, any Neptune activity will make rather difficult to distinguish fact from fantasy; an activated Neptune can indicate a tendency to get caught up in delusions, in this case delusions related to foreign countries (9^th) even if the delusions have their source closer to home. In general, Saturn, the transiting planet, brings the limits of tangible reality to bear upon the natal tendency to fantasize or idealize (or to fantasize based on misplaced idealism). Saturn also represents the repressive and/or structuring elements of government. The U.S. horoscope has Saturn in the 10^th, representing this country’s ongoing desire and tendency to play the role of rule-maker in its public relations with other nations. In other words, we make the rules and expect other nations to get in line.  As I have said in other places, the U.S. natal Saturn’s square to the Sun in Cancer in the 8^th points directly at this nation’s habit (euphemistically so called) of rigging the game (Saturn in Libra in the 10^th) so that we can take the resources of others (8^th house) to establish our own security (Sun in Cancer).

Thus a Saturn transit to the natal Mars-Neptune suggests a tendency to make rules and establish limits in order to facilitate the empire-building process – or, at least, the resource-controlling process, for today’s imperialism has much to do with resources, particularly oil and gas, of which Russia contains a copious supply – via aggression. Saturn-Neptune suggests confusion about what qualifies as true or accurate; Saturn-Mars suggests that the United States makes a rule related to an aggression claimed as external even as the United States clearly qualifies as the aggressive policy.

None of this means, of course, that Vladimir Putin and his cohorts qualify as poor and put-upon victims. When material gets projected, the projector (in this case the United States) finds an appropriate “hook” for the projection: someone or something upon whom or which the projection seems to fit quite nicely. The decidedly non-angelic Mr. Putin certainly fits the bill; however, when projections arise, the projector generally makes a mess of things by trying to attack the hook. Rather, the projector, whether a nation or a person, generally does better to try to withdraw the projection. This means to see more clearly and to speak more honestly to oneself.

Some might say, accurately, that Dangerous Donny has declared his desire to make deals with Russia, not to massing troops on the Russian order. Good! In his scattershot approach to pronouncement and policy, Donny got that one right. He has not, however, made similar statements regarding China, a potentially more serious matter. As I said, the aspects return in some months. And then there’s Neptune.

MORE ON THESE MATTERS BEFORE ARMAGEDDON.