OK, so for those of you who don't follow astrology, the astrological energy underpinning the big shift of 2012 that has everyone atwitter with expectation is a square between Pluto and Uranus (90 degree angle). If you want to know more, read Rick Tarnas' wonderful book Psyche and Cosmos, and get the bigger picture of how the outer planet aspect cycles have coincided quite precisely with archetypal waves of planetary change throughout the history of civilization. The last period when Pluto and Uranus were in a “hard” aspect (conjunctions, oppositions and squares) was the conjunction of 1964-1968, and we can look to that period to get an idea of dramatic change tsunami that is fast approaching. We have just entered within the 10 degree orb of influence of this building energy, so we are getting our first glimpse at its potential future influence. And it appears that our first taste of this coming cosmic conflict is taking place through the squaring off of Hilary and Obama in this democratic primary race, each of whom embody in their astrology one of these two planetary archetypes.
After a misty eyed moment of inspiration watching the Yes We Can music video for Obama that's been electrifying the Internet, I finally got off my butt and dug deeper into the astrology behind the two Democratic contenders and I was amazed at what I found. I use the nodes of the moon as a central focus in my astrology readings. They help pierce the veil of the personality and get down to the core soul energies that are really running the show. I highly recommend Jan Spiller's book Astrology for the Soul if you'd like to know more about the nodes. The south node is associated with our past lives and the north node with our current soul’s desire. Generally, when we are moving in the direction of our North node, there is energy and support from the universe and our projects go smoothly. This is because things are juicy and new and our souls are excited. Conversely, when we operate from our old soul habits and return to the familiar territory of our south node, it's harder to be passionate about our projects, and they tend to be dead in the water energetically. Those old hat roles bore our souls and our projects tend to fall flat. Now, because the nodes are always opposite pairs, it's easy to look at them as I just have, as diametric opposites with the north node positive and the south node negative, but of course, on the soul level time doesn’t exist. And in Vedic astrology, both of the nodes, Ketu, the dragon’s head, and Rahu, the dragon’s tail, are considered problematic. I think this is because both being stuck in old roles and projecting towards future goals can throw us out of the fullness of the moment. The Ideal then is a balanced, flowing both/and approach where we use the experiences and gifts of our past incarnations but we make sure to apply them in a fresh new direction. Our current personality then can act as a rainbow bridge, unifying all of our past and future incarnations into one big kundalini dragon filled flowing moment of soul. It is with regard to their capacity to achieve this ideal rainbow bridging synthesis where I see the biggest difference between Obama and Hilary astrologically.
Obama has the south node in Aquarius, which is ruled by Uranus, the planet of lightning like revolutionary change that first came into our consciousness in 1781, just after the radical birth pangs of this nation. Archetypally, it is associated with that same energy of liberty, equality, and brotherhood. So while Obama’s current personality may still be a little green, he has the deep Aquarian soul knowledge that we desperately need at this point to recreate unity, democracy, and community in this country. And he has his Sun, Mercury, and Uranus all in Leo, the sign of his north node, with Uranus actually conjoined to his North Node. The sun shining bright in its sign of rulership gives his personality the Leonine courage and strength it needs to successfully bring forward his Aquarian soul wisdom and lead us through this next great wave of Uranian Change. I believe that if we can empower him to lead, there will be crystal clarity around right use of power and fidelity to democratic principles that we have not seen in a long time in this country, if ever. I believe that he will use his position of power (Leo) to empower the collective (Uranus).
Hillary, conversely, has her south node in Scorpio along with the Sun, Mercury and Venus. Her Venus, the planet of the heart chakra and the ruler of her Taurus north node, is in its detriment in Scorpio. It is also in a tight square with Mars and Pluto, the two rulers of Scorpio. So her personality structure, her Plutonian heart of darkness if you will, tends to prevent the full Taurus flowering of her soul’s desires, keeping her mired in swampy Scorpionic power plays based on never ending cycles of resentment and retribution. Politically, she brings with her a cabal of old guard political figures that would most likely populate her cabinet, many of whom have shadowy pasts and blood on their hands. Pluto, which came into our consciousness in 1930, is associated with the energy of that period, the black hole vacuum of worldwide depression that set the stage for the will to power and control of Nazism, Fascism, Communism and Corporatism that culminated in the great struggle for world dominance of WWII. The atomic bomb shows the lengths that Pluto is willing to go to for power and control. Pluto rules by fear and threat, fighting cold wars marked by shadowy abuses of power and undemocratic old school solutions. Look to the Godfather or the smoking man and his group in the X-files for how Pluto “takes care” of its problems. Hilary’s support for GATT and NAFTA are examples of her tendency to support these kind of undemocratic Plutonic power structures. On the positive side, as long as it’s used for a higher purpose, Hillary’s dark Kali energy could be very helpful right now as that kind of vicious tenacity is the only language that the crusty old Republican guard seems to understand. Ammachi’s sanctum sanctorum at her Ashram is occupied by Kali.
So, while both Pluto and Uranus bring great change, the methods to their change making are quite distinct. Pluto is more secretive and behind the scenes and unscrupulous, Uranus is more transparent and collaborative and principled. Pluto’s tends to be more reactive, trying to achieve its transformation by force, power, and control while Uranus is more proactive, inspiring others to join in a liberating collective vision. The Pluto Uranus square of 2012 will take place with Pluto in Capricorn and Uranus in Aries. I suspect that one of the major conflicts of this period will be between corporate (Capricorn) power (Pluto) and the freedom and rights (Uranus) of the individual (Aries). Again there are parallels to our two democratic contenders. Hillary is much more tied into and beholden to the old political and corporate power structure, demonstrated by her support of the Iraq war and her 6 years on the Wal-Mart board of directors during its pivotal tumorous growth period. Obama, on the other hand, has more grassroots support and authentic connection to the collective as evinced by his Opposition to the Iraq war from the beginning and his chosen legal focus fighting for people on the fringes as a civil rights attorney.
I think in an ideal world Obama and Hillary would share the ticket, and perhaps even create the template for a whole new dynamic of shared power and collaboration between President and Vice president, an enlightened co-leadership. We have actually have a template for that kind of co-leadership in the Bush/Cheney axis of stupidity/evil. We just need to flip the script. Instead of Bush’s dry drunk rage and stupidity slowly destroying our tenuous web of shared humanity, we can have Lightning Rod Obama with his brilliant inspirational oratory, weaving a new unified world community and igniting a new dream of peaceful interbeing. Instead of Darth Cheney running the Death Star from his shadowy bunker, we could have Kali Hillary doing her own heavy hitting behind the scenes for the cause, chopping crazy talking heads and leading great counterrevolutionary enema purges to wash out the truly evil shits still clinging to power in Washington. But then I looked at the synestry between Obama’s and Hillary’s charts, and the program that I use gave them a number of 95 percent tension (lots of “hard” aspects) and only 25 percent harmony (not much in the “soft” aspect category..trines, sextiles). I haven’t been using that program for long, but they have the highest tension between two people that I’ve seen so far. So I worry that there will be a lot of mud-slinging and debilitating hard ball attacks over the next several months that would make such a creative unified solution impossible. This is all tense energy, but it’s also a tremendous amount of energy, and if they could harness that dynamic friction between them and honor each other’s soul energy, I think that they could transmute it within the container of a sacred committed running mate relationship and be quite the archetypal Uranus and Pluto duo. But if that’s not possible I at least pray that we don’t end up with a smoke filled Plutonian backroom full of super delegates overruling the popular vote, deciding the race for Hillary, and reopening our old wounds of disenfranchisement and division. So, though my Heart of Aquarius longs for Obama here in the rarified air of Aquarius, I hope and pray most of all for a clean fight with a minimum of shadowy antics and negativity which leads to an integrated solution that we can all rally behind by convention time. And I pray that that integration will create a foundational building block, a block that will give us all a step up towards the quantum leap of 2012.
