Midlife Transits

Saturn

Saturn got right to work following his return to Libra, mixing it up with his foes Pluto in Capricorn and Uranus in Aries. First, he decided to co-sponsor Glenn Beck’s Rally to Restore Honor on August 28, 2010. He teamed up with Uranus in Pisces to take advantage of Uranus moving briefly out of volatile Aries. He decided to lend his support to Mr. Beck in order to get out his message that honor is a good thing (Saturn loves honor) and was gracious enough to share the platform with Uranus in Pisces’s message about the importance of religious, particularly Christian, faith. Pisces happens to be the sign of Christianity.

Saturn’s only requirement was that Beck’s rally remain relatively friendly and non-political in tone, even if otherwise volatile political figures such as Sarah Palin were involved. Somehow, he managed to use his Libra persuasiveness to keep the rally on track, probably much to the disappointment of Pluto in Capricorn and Uranus in Aries, who were hoping for more controversy and outrageously extreme shenanigans.

Now, Saturn is using his current Libran temperament to show an unexpected side of himself: a sense of humor and wit. He’s gotten behind Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity on October 30, 2010. He’s even gotten behind Stewart’s buddy Stephen Colbert to help sponsor Colbert’s competing faux rally, March to Keep Fear Alive.

In an exclusive interview, Saturn weighs in on his latest ventures on to the Washington Mall:

Did you ever think you’d be working with Jon Stewart, a comedian and purveyor of fake news? Fake isn’t normally your style and neither is comedy.

Well, it was out of the question when I was in Virgo. My schedule was packed with doom and gloom during those days. But now I’m in Libra, and I thought it would be a good time to show off my dry humor. People forget that Libra is a witty sign. And Jon & I really connected on what the core message should be. By the way, he’s a Sagittarian and actually very honest. Not fake at all. Outspoken, but truthful in his own way.

What’s the message?

Well, he agreed to promote all my core virtues: moderation, reason, sanity, talking through disagreements with civility. I like the slogan “take it down a notch for America.” I’m trying to get everyone to take it down a notch these days and it’s rough going. I thought this would be a fun and effective way to make a statement. I’m getting really tired of those Hitler signs and Jon & I were on the same page about that.

We have humble goals, and I like that, too. I’m a humble guy at heart, but I have a duty to do my best to put forward a point of view that’s being drowned out by the extremism of Pluto and the, excuse my language, insanity of Uranus in Aries. We gotta do something. It’s a real problem. I always say that, but I mean it. So even if we don’t get a big crowd, it’s a worthy effort.

You’re sponsoring Stephen Colbert’s competing March to Keep Fear Alive, why’s that?

Well, I’m the official planetary sponsor of fear, so you know, it was a no-brainer!

Seriously, though, I’m hardly ever in a sign where I get to make fun of myself in a dignified way. I’ve worked with Stephen on honoring our troops and a few other things, and he’s a good guy. So I agreed to a little teasing for a good cause. And really, this is the perfect time to do it, because Pluto’s taken over my natural sign, Capricorn, and pushed the fear thing way to an extreme. And I’m not about extremes, you know? I’m about realism and caution, but I’m not one to go off the deep end. So Stephen will help me take a few digs at Pluto, and Jon will help me take a few digs at Uranus in Aries. I don’t have the drama quotient that those two bullying planets do (excuse my language, I have great respect for both of them, I just disagree, no offense intended), so I’ll take any exposure I can get. And it’s, you know, it’s good to stretch myself, lighten up a little, kind of slip the message in. We really need the message!

Glenn Beck and Jon Stewart are usually thought to be on the opposite sides of the political spectrum. Why did you agree to work with both? In fact, some people would call both of them extreme in their views and that seems counter to your message.

No, no, that is the message. We can work together. I’m non-partisan. I can work with everyone. If people will just give me a chance, we can actually solve some problems, little by little. You know, you may have extreme feelings, but if you can be polite for a day, we have a chance. Maybe 2 people disagree, but maybe both have something to offer. If we can refrain from attacking each other, we have a chance. That’s my message. I’m really very serious about it.

Even with our differences, we agree on a lot of things. My job is to help us realize that, maybe help us figure out what we agree on, so we can counter some of those extreme influences that are out there. These rallies aren’t… they’re modest, but it’s a start and I intend to keep working on this for the next couple of years.

Good luck. Thanks for talking with us.

Thank you for helping me get the word out.

I’ll admit that I really haven’t known much about Glenn Beck. About 6 months ago, I was searching for something on Google and stumbled across what must have been his website. I thought I saw a factual error and fired off an email, not realizing he was a popular broadcaster. I found out later when he started getting a lot of media coverage by Time magazine and so on.

I started seeing snippets on TV of controversial statements he made & saw other coverage, but didn’t investigate too much. I’ve seen his latest book, too. The cover makes me vaguely uncomfortable because the uniform on it reminds me of Nazi brownshirts. Every time I see it out of the corner of my eye, I think “Why are Nazis being prominently featured in America’s fine retail establishments?”

Then today I saw a quote from what Mr. Beck is billing as The Plan. Here’s the quote:

“I have begun meeting with some of the best minds in the country that believe in limited government, maximum freedom and the values of our Founders. I am developing a 100 year plan. I know that the bipartisan corruption in Washington that has brought us to this brink and it will not be defeated easily. It will require unconventional thinking and a radical plan to restore our nation to the maximum freedoms we were supposed to have been protecting, using only the battlefield of ideas.

- All of the above will culminate in The Plan, a book that will provide specific policies, principles and, most importantly, action steps that each of us can take to play a role in this Refounding.”

And I thought–is he an Aquarian? Turns out, he is. February 10, 1964. The clue is this: “unconventional thinking and a radical plan to restore our nation to the maximum freedoms we were supposed to have been protecting, using only the battlefield of ideas.” You can’t get more Aquarian than unconventional thinking, radical plans, maximum freedoms, and the battlefield of ideas. The sign of Aquarius eats that stuff up.

Turns out he’s practically the astrological twin of another popular pillar of post-Bush conservatism, Sarah Palin. They’ve both got Mars conjunct sun, at least three planets in Aquarius, and natal Neptune squaring the Sun, Mars, Saturn triple conjunction.

Aquarius is billed as a ‘progressive’ sign, but the Aquarian interpretation of progressive is rather idiosyncratic. Lincoln was an Aquarius; FDR was one, and Reagan was one. Quite different approaches to government. The highest-ranking Aquarian politician of late has been Dick Cheney, and he’s not high on the progressive’s most admired list.

So, a few words about the Aquarian approach (although Cheney is something of an outlier in the Aquarian pantheon). It tends to be populist and popular, bold, divisive, stubborn, and counter-intuitive. Aquarius has a bit of a superiority complex, and with it an often successful habit of playing dumb. They play the ‘just folks’ card quite often; perhaps it is true, perhaps not.They tend to be good communicators, although in an unconventional way.

Beck and Palin are Aquarians that share a feisty thirst for combat, due to the Mars conjuction. Both are hemmed in by a strict and conservative Saturn. Both, due to Neptune transits, have been perhaps a bit insane of late, quite lucratively so in both cases.

Both have had a nice long bout of Jupiter in their sign this year (economic success) squaring Neptune in Scorpio (conspiracy theories and irrational fears). Both perhaps have a tendency to delude themselves (Neptune square sun in the birth chart, also shared by our current President) as well as considerable charisma. Both also have Jupiter in Aries, which contributes to a philosophy of self-reliance and aggression.

Neptune has been melting the Sun, Mars and Saturn placements of Beck and Palin over the past couple of years. In combination with Jupiter in Aquarius this year, there’s been perhaps a bit of grandiosity and over-estimation of self, although it probably seems quite justified to both of them given their rapid rises to center stage. Until Neptune leaves their Aquarius conjunctions, both will likely have a somewhat distorted view of the world and themselves, perhaps coupled with strong idealism.

The thing that’s interesting to me about Beck is how overtly Aquarian he is in his idea for The Plan. Although Beck is seemingly a free-market type (bills himself as a libertarian), Aquarius is actually the sign of the collective, of socialism and communism, of an ideal of rational planning combined with The Support Of The Masses. Only an Aquarian would have the chutzpah to come up with a 100 year plan.

Most people are lucky if they can keep their plans on track for a week, let alone 100 years. Only an Aquarius would even think it’s a good idea to come up with such a plan on the belief that things wouldn’t change so much in a hundred years that all your former assumptions wouldn’t be outdated. Aquarius can be a very fixed sign, unwilling to admit the possibility that it would have to change. Even though individual Aquarians, like Beck and Palin and even Reagan, FDR and Lincoln, can change key details of their strategies in the blink of an eye.

A 100 year plan is the kind of idea that a socialist or old-style Marxist would eat right up. The masses will shake off the shackles of tyranny vested in The Powers That Be. They will not be held down by the economic elites but will take their rightful place through enlightenment and collective action. And an Aquarian will tell them how to do it–according to the Master Plan. Everything will be reformed and renewed and we’ll just all start over with a fresh slate and the errors of the past will gradually wither away. Everyone will be free once the nasty current structures are abolished.

In some ways, it’s a powerful and touching vision. It never works, though. Neptune, with its promise of Nirvana once restrictions are melted away, is a notorious liar. Things don’t go according to plan; the masses are fickle and contrary, and most of them are actually much more interested in the nuts and bolts of a semi-decent life than the battlefield of ideas.

I can’t blame Beck for succumbing to Neptune’s lure, though, and his ideas may prove influential. We’ll find out the real consequences of them when Pluto enters Aquarius in about 16 years, but til then, I admire the guy’s willingness to dream, if not his grounding in reality.