Last time, I spoke, with what I considered admirable clarity (though perhaps, considering the nature of Neptune, I let my self-deception get the better of me) about the abject lack of clarity running amok (if a lack can run amok, or run at all) in this oft-rather-deluded land of ours, a lack of clarity symbolized by transiting Neptune squaring the United States’ Sagittarius ascendant. Since I wrote those (I hope) wise and (perhaps) witty words, the lack of clarity has, so to speak, increased ten-fold. Need I remind you that media has played a formative role in all this? Hardly surprising; Time Warner owns Mad Magazine.
Consider the way the wise and witty Donald Trump, a chap currently calling himself the commander in chief, did a curious about-face on the matter of regime change and Russia, first announcing that he would have none of the former and that he saw no reason not to act friendly toward the latter (views your friendly astrological blogster found quite reasonable even if they came from one of the least reasonable mortals meandering through the political marshes); then consider the way the whole matter seemed to disappear from the MSM as quickly as Alice’s rabbit heading down a hole, as reasonable questions about what had just happened got lost in a torrent of tweets, ramblings, and mystifications from the aforementioned DT. MSM and populace both seemed to forget the whole matter, with the latter having perhaps developed a short attention-span when it comes to the places our commanders-in-chief decide to attack, the list having grown rather long over the years and the news accounts increasingly sycophantic. It was enough to make one wonder if someone other than DT was running (so to speak) the show.
For the record: Mr. DT for many months had insisted a) that he did not favor regime change, and that b) he saw no reason to antagonize the Great Bear to the east, both of which policies apparently arose from his desire to “make deals” with various parties, nefarious or otherwise. He then declared that a certain Mr. Assad had to go, to effect which going he sent – after, curiously enough, warning the gentle Assad – a slew of tomahawk missiles plummeting into an air-base in a purportedly Russian-controlled part of Syria, though, much in the manner of many commander-in-chiefs before him, he decided to forgo the gathering of evidence before launching the attack, apparently going with his significantly-sized gut as he lashed out at a newly minted enemy.
Though the bombing gave DT a brief respite from the ongoing MSM-originating criticism that had dogged his administration (not, in this blogster’s opinion, without good reason), the criticism soon returned. After all, so much stupidity spews from the mouth of our chatty (and perhaps brain-damaged) commander-in-chief that even the MSM, in myriad other cases the minion of misgovernment, could not ignore it and so returned to the hypocritical sort of haranguing that now floods our “news outlets.” SNAFU? So it seems. But when what we call “normal” really qualifies as a severely disfunctional – a term one might apply not only to Mr. DT, but to the MSM, the FBI, and the CIA as well — we should probably feel concern.
Notably, the square from TR Neptune to the U.S. Ascendant refers not only, or even primarily, to Mr. DT or to the presidential hierarchy.[1] Neptune rules Pisces, intercepted in the United States’ third house, a house suggesting the media and various domestic sources of “information.” DT may speak truly when he criticizes the media, particularly the MSM, but when he speaks about false news and such, we should probably see that the fellow as befuddled by his own projections. Many MSM sources would have us believe that we came within a whisker of a decidedly unwise war and that the danger arose because of the dangerous wackiness of a chap who, oddly enough, qualified as the peace candidate during the campaign. Yet one wonders why the regime-change agenda seemed, of a sudden, back in force.
We have seen this before, methinks: delusion thought necessary to keep our military men and machines at the ready, though one never quite knows for what. In astrology, we read a transit back to the natal horoscope, so when the U.S. has a transit from Neptune, we should look to the N Mars-Neptune square in the 7/4/1776 horoscope, an aspect reflecting the United States’ tendency, evident throughout its history, to deceive (Neptune), via the news media (Pisces in the third house (H3)), about foreign involvements (N. Neptune in H9[2]) as a pretext for aggression (N Mars in H7), pretending the while that the threat begins with enemies (H7), not with the United States. We might, in pondering these matters, recall Marie Louise von Franz’s statement about projection and projectiles: “When one becomes the target of another person’s negative projection, one often experiences that hatred almost physically as a projectile.” (See Projection and Recollection in Jungian Psychology.)
Now, admittedly, DT, with his abundant Gemini-and-Sagittarius material, mutability from A to Z, has not seen fit to manifest much in the way of consistency, but such an about-face on policies that he seemed least likely to do an about-face on – policies that, at least in this merry blogster’s opinion, seemed about the only worthwhile notions emerging from our leader’s addled brain – should, to put the matter mildly, give us pause. Remember that DT advocated such policies in opposition to the neo-liberal (and neo-conservative) elites who have, over the years, shown a troubling fondness for regime change and missile-attacks. Perhaps those elites didn’t feel very fond of an approach to international relations that didn’t promise much in the way of wartime profits for the munitions industries or much in the way of fulsome praise for the government clowns who service them.
In sum, the square from TR Neptune to the U.S. Ascendant-Descendant axis tells us about a situation that encompasses more than merely the man with the DTs. Those purveying that deception do so in order to facilitate the expansionist dictates symbolized by the U.S. Sagittarius Ascendant, particularly with Jupiter, ruler of that Ascendant, on the cusp of the H8 (the resources of others): taking or controlling others’ resources to facilitate imperialist ends yet voiced as a matter of security (Jupiter, plus Venus, Sun, and Mercury in Cancer). The aspect implicates not only DT, but the MSM, the FBI, and the CIA as well. (The CIA, connected with “foreign service,” foments all manner of deception related to foreign countries (N. Neptune in H9). DT may function nicely as a carrier of Neptune-related energies, whether indicated in the natal horoscope or by transit, but that other triumvirate should trouble us at least as much, for they do a much more effective job in the deception department, having had many more years of practice.
Three more things. 1. I said before the election that DT would eventually line up nicely with this country’s expansionist and militaristic policies. My reasons: his Gemini Sun falls on the U.S. Mars, and his Sun-Moon opposition squares the U.S. Neptune, with the Sagittarius Moon conjoining the aforementioned U.S. Sagittarius Ascendant. His position on the military budget should therefore come as no surprise. 2. Transiting (TR) Saturn has now turned retrograde, beginning its move back to station directly on DT’s Sun-Moon opposition. Expect organized opposition from the elites to increase the pressure on DT as Saturn moves back toward the beginning of the 3rd decanate of Sagittarius. 3. TR Neptune not only squares the U.S. Ascendant-Descendant axis, but trines the U.S. Sun and quincunxes the U.S. Saturn in Libra in H10, setting off the N Sun-Saturn square. Neptune’s transit to those positions suggests what I mention above: that we have no certainty, at this juncture, about who is in charge – matters to which we can return in the next installment.
Next time: the solar arc (SA) movement of the United States’ natal Sun-Saturn square into aspect with the U.S. Ascendant-Descendant axis.
[1] TR Neptune does trine the N Sun, though, and it squares the N. Saturn, which squares the N. Sun from the tenth house. We will return to these matters in the next installment.
[2] Both Neptune and Pisces, Neptune’s dignity, are intercepted.
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