Midlife Transits

Here’s a link to an article in Wired that reflects on the changing nature of the Internet experience for individual users: The Internet is People. It reflects a phenomenon that I’ve written about elsewhere. Pluto in Capricorn is going to help make the world a gigantic small  town where everyone knows your business and your behavior is affected accordingly (in good and bad ways, inevitably).

The Internet essentially became the World Wide Web in 1995 or 1996, under the influence of Uranus in Aquarius. Freedom loving, idealistic Aquarius was thrilled with the technology to connect people around the globe, because that’s the kind of stuff it likes.

Neptune in Aquarius got involved toward the end of the 1990′s, and in its typically delusional Neptunian way got way overly idealistic, not to mention stupid, and precipitated the dot.com bubble and crash of 99.

Uranus moved on to Pisces, but Neptune hung around in Aquarius tinkering with social networking sites until it hit the mother lode this year. MySpace was impressive, but the white-hot expansion of Twitter and Facebook is a reflection of the inflationary expansionism of Neptune combined with Jupiter (and even Chiron) in Aquarius this year. The fact that these sites are used to quickly spread news about current events is not a coincidence.

Aquarius likes to empower people. It likes people to use Facebook and text messaging and what have you to get a US president elected, to protest a seemingly unfair election in Iran, to do do-goody social things and to fight back against unwarranted power.

This was all fine and dandy while Pluto was in Sagittarius. Sagittarius can be quite idealistic too, albeit occasionally self-righteous, and the Aquarian and Sagittarius mix was a happy combo. Happy for the signs, I mean, not necessarily for everyone else. After all, Al Qaeda used the Internet (Aquarius) to plot its deadly (Pluto) acts of religious extremism (Sagittarius).

Things are changing though. The Internet is getting less anonymous. Pluto in Capricorn sees the rise of what’s called ‘reputation marketing.’ Capricorn in general is obsessed with reputation and having Pluto in the sign only makes the obsession grow stronger.  Capricorn loves to know your business because knowing your business is an extremely effective method of social control. Capricorn loves social control and conformity.The necessity of guarding one’s reputation becomes a more iron-clad inhibitor of spontaneous action than any legislative act could be.

Who would have thought the once anarchic and wacky Aquarian Internet would evolve into something sneaking toward making everyone the same? Who would have thought that posting embarrasssing Sagittarian photos of yourself being uninhibited on Facebook would have consequences in the Capricornian age?

But the truth is, in a couple of years, there will not be any major planets in Aquarius. Neptune will be in Pisces, conspiring with Pluto in a whole different way. The Internet will be different, not just in its killer apps, but in what it means to society.

When I first heard about the protests in Iran over the suspicious election results, I immediately thought of Uranus in Aries. Uranus is still in Pisces as we speak, but it will move into Aries for the first time in about a year. There will be a bit of a bumpy transition period between Uranus in Pisces and Uranus in Aries, and I have a feeling we’re seeing the start of it. Here’s why:

Uranus in Aries will square Pluto in Capricorn, and,  in terms of world events, these influences usually start showing up before the aspects become exact.

In my astrological future-pondering mind, Uranus in Aries has always represented the possibility of dramatic or even violent individual actions (Aries) of revolution or rebellion (Uranus) against repressive or dictatorial (Pluto) governments (Capricorn). Leaving the astro terms aside, I’ve been having a feeling for awhile that violent clashes with authoritarian governments are going to get more  likely on the world stage.

The clashes in Iran have some of the characteristics I would expect from Uranus in Aries. The first characteristic is a reliance on technology (Uranus). The second characteristic is the spontaneous and even leaderless type of angry action (Aries) that is possible with the technology of today.

Now I don’t want to make it seem like I think these events are unprecendented. They’re obviously not. Uranus has been in Aries before, most recently from about 1928 through 1935. And protests against authoritarian governments are not exactly new–and by their nature, they are often spontaneous and seemingly leaderless. Nor am I at all sure that the current protests in Iran will amount to anything significant.

What I do think is that the restless and even violent discontent represented by Uranus in Aries will have important consequences for the world at large as ideologies evolve and clash in the post-Sagittarian world.

On the upside, Uranus in Aries is good for dramatic new technologies, and perhaps we’ll see breakthroughs in alternative energy during the next 7 or 8 years.

Simon Baker

The last time Uranus was in Pisces, in the 1920s, public interest skyrocketed in offbeat things like seances, spiritualism, and Theosophy. Given that the modern world is already drenched in New Age stuff, it seemed hard to believe that Uranus in Pisces would make seances more popular this time around. True, shows like Medium and Ghost Whisperer have found their audiences. There are also a lot of shows about paranormal stuff on cable television. So there has been a bit of interest in these sorts of Uranus in Pisces type things over the past 5 or 6 years, at least on TV.

And now that Saturn’s in Virgo, we get a show like The Mentalist, about a former fake psychic and con man who’s turned to crime busting. Saturn in Virgo is the enemy of Uranus in Pisces, and it disapproves of all that mumbo-jumbo stuff. Hence, we get a skeptic on TV. It happens to be the most popular new show on television this year. I suspect that has a great deal more to do with the fetchingly eye-candy nature of the star, Simon Baker, than with the fact that the plot line makes him a skeptic. Still, Saturn in Virgo’s got to be happy to get its day in the court of public television opinion.

But a couple of TV shows hardly seems like a dramatic manifestation of Uranus in Pisces, given that people have always loved a good ghost story. The real impact of Uranus in Pisces is to be found, I think, in the belated recognition by mainstream Western medicine that people who need to be healed hate much of its impersonality, brutality, and lack of spiritual content. As the following AP story demonstrates (link) alternative medicine has now found its way into many nooks and crannies of conventional medicine.

Saturn in Virgo, guardian of old-line and traditional thinking, lover of bureaucracy, and general party-spoiler extraordinaire, doesn’t like it though. As you’ll see if you read the article, all sorts of skepticism is brought forth. Saturn in Virgo is suspicious of all this alternative stuff, and perhaps rightly so when it points out that big business will take over anything, including the hawking of spiritually-based healing.

Saturn in Virgo may bring up some objections, but he won’t stop the train. Uranus beats Saturn in almost any contest, hands down, and alternative medicine is likely to be here to stay. And a lot of people are glad about that.

Here’s a link to something Mashable is promoting, a Summer of Social Good. The goal is to raise money for charities this summer through social media like Twitter.

To me, this is a prime example of the influence of the Jupiter/Neptune/Chiron conjunction in Aquarius this summer. Aquarius as a sign is often hot for social good. Furthermore, Aquarius is the sign of social networking through technology.

Put Jupiter and Neptune into this sign, throw in Chiron and mash them all together and you get something like this. Neptune provides the idealism; Jupiter provides the incentive to do good through economic means, and Chiron provides the urge to heal something grand–like society. And yes, this is a summer phenomenon, this conjunction. By the fall, we’ll have other astrological things to worry about. Like Saturn in Libra being in a bad mood with Pluto in Capricorn.

Another example of the conjunction zeitgeist, I think, is the fact that NBC is launching a show with the improbable title of “The Philanthropist” about a globe-trotting philanthropist who just wants to save the world and blow up some cars or stuff.

Stop Poverty

This is from my Twitter feed:

In astrology, the symbols for possessions and the symbols for values are often the same. What do your possessions say about your values?

You can weigh in by posting a comment.

If you want to follow me on Twitter, here’s my account info: http://twitter.com/practicalastro

Thanks!

I know the sun’s in Gemini right now, but Mars has moved into Taurus. Taurus loves to cook and to eat. This can be kind of inconvenient considering that now we’re getting into swimsuit season. For those who have long since given up on swimsuits, we’re still getting into hot weather, bare arms, and all the rest of it.

So hearty eating is probably not the way to go for those in the northern hemisphere. But it is time to whip out those summer recipes or find some new ones (e.g., this one at Epicurious) so you can indulge Mars’s desire to get busy in the kitchen.

If the yen for yummy summer food hasn’t hit you yet, it probably will soon enough. Venus moves into Taurus on the 6th. For a week or so, we’ll have 3 planets in Taurus.

After that, the sun will move into Cancer (June 21). Cancer’s another food-loving sign. Motto of the month: home-made ice cream, here I come!