the truth will set you free

the december 2004 forecast

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mercury and saturn are retrograde.

venus squares neptune	13°03' scorpio/aquarius	december 2
venus conjoins mars	16°34' scorpio	december 5
mercury rx conjoins pluto (2nd of 3)	21°49' sagittarius	december 7
mercury conjoins sun (new mercury cycle starts)	18°33' sagittarius	december 10
new moon	20°22' sagittarius	december 11
venus trines saturn rx	26°13' scorpio/cancer	december 13
sun conjoins pluto (new pluto cycle starts)	22°03' sagittarius	december 13
venus enters sagittarius	0°00' sagittarius	december 16
mars sextiles chiron	24°18' scorpio	december 17
venus squares uranus	3°28' sagittarius/pisces	december 19
mars trines saturn	25°51' scorpio/cancer	december 19
mercury returns to forward motion (stationary direct)	10°46' sagittarius	december 20
mars enters sagittarius	0°00' sagittarius	december 25
full moon	5°12' cancer/capricorn	december 26
saturn opposes chiron	25°13' cancer/capricorn	december 27
mercury conjoins venus	16°39' sagittarius	december 29
venus sextiles jupiter	17°07' sagittarius	december 30
mercury sextiles jupiter	17°08' sagittarius	december 30
mars squares uranus	3°53' sagittarius	december 31

all dates are based on pacific time.

most people would agree that these are extraordinary times. the planetary positions and interactions are not incredibly extraordinary, but the way they are playing out is. this means that the issues that arise are founded on the interactions of the planets with specific charts. in this instance, it happens the chart of the us is being hit at several particularly vulnerable spots. because the us is the last super-power standing, it’s the 2000-pound gorilla that gets to eat anything he wants. what the us does affects everyone on the planet, but 52% of the us population gets to determine what the rest of the world experiences from this sickly super-power over the next four years.

when a large gorilla which we have no control over has this much influence, we are talking about a phenomenon that personifies the nature of the outer planets in our lives. i have tried over the years to place more emphasis on the really large factors that affect us, because we can talk about personal experiences like romance or a good day for getting dental work but what enables us to enjoy these personal events is the enveloping context of world events that affect large groups of people. in other words, it’s hard to feel giddy with love when you’ve lost your job due to an economic down-turn.

saturn in cancer revisited

whether you are happy with the outcome of the recent election or not, we need to be mindful of the factors that are at work in our lives which symbolize this phenomenon (inter)nationally and what they also suggest for us personally. for those in the us who look at life in terms of their own direct experiences, little may have changed since george w. bush took the oath of office in january 2001, especially if you know no one who died on 9/11 or has been sent to fight in afghanistan or iraq. gas prices are higher. health insurance has gotten way more expensive. there are more potholes in the roads. far away, however, many things have changed. washington dc has gone through a catastrophic revolution. the governments of nations around the world have been influenced by political organizations with a (neoconservative) partisan bent. the environment has been under assault — the arctic region has undergone a cataclysmic reduction in ice days due to global warming. of course, iraqis and afghanis can tell you about the impact of the bush administration on their lives. very soon, there will be more stories to tell.

i have spoken about the effects that we are experiencing now as being related to saturn’s transit through cancer, which started june 2003. when saturn is in any sign, it puts pressure on any person (or nation) whose sun is in that sign. since the us has sun in cancer, it is put in that position. this is true of any state with sun in cancer, but in the case of the us it is more significant and noticeable because the us is a 2000-pound gorilla.

saturn in cancer in recent history

however, that still doesn’t explain why this time it is so powerful. saturn goes through cancer every 30 years. the last time it was in cancer, it was momentous: in 1972, nixon resigned in the wake of the watergate scandal. the vietnam war was crashing around his head. in 1944, the second world war was winding down in the european theater, but in the pacific theater the japanese were still going strong. fatman and little boy were dropped on hiroshima and nagasaki in august 1945, when saturn was in cancer. in each instance, we could say that the us experienced a turning point in its history, as did the world. the horrors of nuclear weapons started the cold war, and no one knew where the corruption in government would end in early 70s.

saturn and chiron oppose each other again this month.

are the stakes higher now? some have made a compelling case for the breakdown of the american state as we know it. the system of checks and balances is being seriously undermined. the congress has been turned on its head, and the country has nearly been reduced to a one-party system. people who are supposed to be working for the public good undercut it, openly breaking laws with impunity. serious questions exist about the legitimacy of the last election. (the actions to tip the balance in the 2000 elections are well known, but the new electronic voting system has made stealth attacks on the vote undetectable.) if these are unusual, more dramatic than previous instances of saturn in cancer, we may be able to attribute this to the fact that chiron is opposing saturn, and the us sun, at the same time. this reveals the wound in anyone who receives this contact, and the us is no exception. the weaknesses in our system of government and our society are being revealed. they must be explored, even exploited so that the nation can understand and overcome them. george w. bush is a brilliant expression of this wound, which explains his electability, if not his fitness for the job.

when saturn and chiron change signs

other things contribute to this pattern, but if we track the interaction of saturn and chiron, and the movement of saturn beyond the sign of cancer, we might anticipate when some of this will change. saturn and chiron have been moving at roughly the same speed for several years. they have been opposing each other since september 2003. next march, chiron moves into aquarius from capricorn. in july, saturn enters leo. they will oppose each other three more times in these signs, in december 2005, and february and june 2006. once they change signs, the emphasis of the lesson will switch. for one thing, saturn will no longer be in the sign that the us sun is in. this in itself can create an awakening. the notion of the insular family, the fear of being unsafe, will be mitigated by the need for social contact that comes through leo. however, since saturn limits a sign’s expression, bringing out the worst so that it can be improved, we can expect more bigotry and social prejudice. issues of elitism will divert attention away from threats to the pluralism and populism which have been the trademarks of the us culture. social reforms that have made life better for individuals (improved society) may be rolled back, such as equal rights, even abortion rights. (of the signs, leo most rules children.)

as the contacts in 2006 occur very close to the us lunar nodes, the “war points” in the chart, we will certainly be dealing with the curtailment of social programs as a consequence of war. however, we could also be dealing with another war, or a war that has morphed into something different from its original form. this will also certainly signal a suppression of economic circumstances in the us. a struggle between the us house and senate may be in the foreground, and constitutional amendments to dramatically change the character of the us are also sure to arise.

it’s sad that all this has to happen, but it is the way people learn. some tough lessons lie before the us citizenry, as well as its leaders.

december looks brighter.

if you recall, mercury stood still on november 30 to begin its three-week retrograde period. it will remain in sagittarius throughout the time. this suggests that issues of truth and its consequences will be center stage. i don’t know if we will be able to tell. more truth about the iraqi war will be revealed, as well as other decisions and policies that heretofore have gone under the radar. this will be true in our own lives as well. mercury is making contact with pluto three times related to this transit, so it will be pluto’s messenger. it will foreground and manifest transformations in our lives that we need to make — if not now, then in the beginning of next year. if you’ve been waiting for the right time to make changes, this may be it, whether you feel ready or not. it is still possible to lay groundwork, to prepare for what’s to come. with pluto involved, it should be no secret what needs to be eliminated and what can be put in its place.

mercury goes direct on the 19^th, and with a wallop. venus’s square to uranus that day is the first of a one-two punch which will be completed by mars on the 31^st. relationship issues are bound to come to the surface today, but all in the name of clearing the air.

it’s okay to be active this month in trying to reach your goals. it’s a great time to do more than just by holiday gifts. through the 5^th and then whenever the moon is in a feminine sign until the 16^th, venus and mars provide us with an opportunity to make agreements and form partnerships that will turn out well. after the 19^th, when mercury returns to direct motion, and through the 30^th, communications and contracts will turn out well if they are timed to use the mercury-jupiter harmony that prevails. after the 30^th and through january 8^th, if moon is involved the aspect can still be used.

these events mean that many things we plan will turn out well, even if we don’t know how to make the timing perfect. and, anything that brings out the truth is good, because it really does set us free.

there are a few other events that make the month interesting, but none as significant as the saturn-chiron or mercury pluto interactions. on the 31^st, mars squares uranus in the waning phase of the cycle which began in august 2003. this is when the chinks began to show in the armor of the bush administration. given this, we could expect a few more chinks, perhaps even the armor coming off to the general discovery that the emperor has no clothes. in your own life, think back to what happened at that seed-planting time, because it is now that the development of initiatives taken up then will enter their final stages.

parting thoughts

i read an article from the british times by anatole kaletsky. (contact me if you want to read it.) he compares this era in us politics to the thatcher-major era in british government, when the conservative movement reached its height and was subsequently discredited as people saw the consequences of their policies. he suggests that w. deserves the mess he’s gotten us into and should be forced to come up with the solutions. kerry and the democrats could have been saddled with coming up with solutions to the problems, then blamed for not being able to solve them (since they are not particularly solvable). certainly there will be consequences stemming from the actions and policies of bush’s neocon regime, and people will learn given enough time. however, i am not sure how long the learning curve will be — how many years it will take for people to understand the impact of the poisonous policies. this is for several reasons.

first, many people are misinformed and they are likely to stay that way. we know (or have found out) that if you repeat a lie often enough and from enough sources that people will believe it no matter how preposterous it is. the sheer quantity and pervasiveness of mis-messages from the media is not likely to change in the next four years (or ever) without a change in the will of their leadership. the will of the leadership will not change as long as the leaders are neoconservative in political view. this is largely the case. with the pro-business slant of the current administration, there is no inducement to take the moral high ground, and no legislation is likely to make it through congress to re-establish the fairness doctrine that was disabled by reagan in the 1980s.

second, even if people were better informed by the media, there is a large number of them that will only believe what they hear from a(n increasingly politicized) pulpit. they have faith. if they have been told that the sky is green, they will believe that, even if it doesn’t appear to be so at this moment that it really is green, or they believe that it will turn green imminently.

third, at least a major part of the population believes that the rapture will save them and they are waiting for it. they’ve read the “left behind” book series by tim lahaye and jerry jenkins about how the rapture will happen. the destruction of the environment and a war in the middle east are signs of its coming. indeed, these fundamentalists believe that its their obligation to use up the earth’s resources before the rapture comes so as not to waste them. so, the very things that convince logically minded people that something is wrong are confirmation to these people that something is right. while this cannot stand unchallenged in the overall scheme of things, it may take this crowd a very long time to shift their consciousness.

there is no doubt that in a democracy no large group of voters can be left behind. without the opportunity to play out their fantasies on the world stage, there would be no chance for them to disabuse themselves of their sense of what’s true. (ironically, they are saying the same things about us non-believers.)

in spite of this grim irony, there is still hope. we can’t give up, but we should be ready for a series of unpleasant results from bush’s misguided approach to leadership on the world stage.