In Jan 2008 the North Node reversed into Aquarius, where it will remain until July 2009. So collectively we are needing to learn about Aquarius. Our collective karma is at a point where, to move forward, we need to become Aquarius at its best: humane, with a vision for the future that perhaps involves technology, a sense of brotherhood between nations. What we need to move away from is negative Leo – self-centredness, complacency, a sense of entitlement and domination over the planet.
It’s hard to generalise for the whole world, because even though we live in an age of globalisation (given impetus by Pluto in Sag and the Uranus-Neptune conjunction of the 1990s), it is still made up of many different parts. This recognition itself is North Node Aquarius: that while we need to feel interconnected, globalisation should not be a matter of making the whole world like the West, of aspiring, for example, to turn the ‘lost continent’ of Africa into something resembling ourselves.
Having scratched my head to apply the Node-Chiron-Neptune conjunction to the whole world, I found I could at least apply it to the USA, which isn’t a bad start, given its influence on the world.
You can see the North Node theme politically. There is the old guard, Bush Republicanism, that has been characterised by negative Leo. And there has been something new coming in strongly via Obama, which could be characterised as positive Aquarius. Obama’s Ascendant is at 18 Aquarius, which the North Node is currently hovering around. He is therefore very much the man of the moment, a public person through whom the current placement of the North Node seems to be crystallising, the Aquarian sense of brotherhood and a new vision for the future.
The Node has also been conjunct Chiron. So this sense of a need for a new vision is fuelled by the mistakes of the past. The chart for the Iraq War has a (wide) Mars Chiron conjunction, which is kind of perfect. In 2003 George Bush was about to have Chiron start to hard aspect his Angles; in the UK, Tony Blair was about to have Chiron conjoining his natal Chiron-MC conjunction.
So Chiron was an important part of the picture around the Iraq War, both for the War itself, and more personally for its leading protagonists. The current hunger for change in the US, the longing for a new idealism, has been partly fuelled by the tragic, drawn-out fiasco of Iraq. This connects Chiron and the North Node.
The centaur Chiron was primarily a wise teacher who educated young heroes, rather than the ‘wound’, which came later, but which has become the reflex word we apply to him; and as far as I know, he was never a healer. So there is a certain type of wisdom to be gained from encounters with Chiron, and also an ability to attempt impossible tasks. Negatively, there is a certain type of foolishness allied to a quixotic, ‘fools rush in where angels fear to tread’ mentality.
The particular type of wisdom and folly around Chiron is associated with insight, or lack of insight, into how things are: the insight that certain things cannot be changed, they are part of how humans are, the ‘incurable wound’ that frustrates all our naïve idealism. In the case of Iraq, you had three tribes – the Sunnis, Shias and Kurds – that had been artificially roped together as a country, and forcibly stopped from slaughtering each other by a ruthless dictator, Saddam Hussein. George Bush (unlike his father) and Tony Blair thought they knew better, they would bring ‘democracy’ to such a country. This was quixotic Chiron. We all know what the result has been, and 5 years on there would still probably be mayhem if the Americans left. The long-term result is likely to be a dictatorship by the majority Shias instead of by the minority Sunnis.
So this is Chiron teaching us that between competing human tribes there will always be a struggle for power, you cannot hope for ‘democracy’ where there are such differences. Even in the US, the attitude of many Republicans towards the opposition Democrats can be such that it is hard for democracy to happen. Look what happened to Bill Clinton while in office, and then the dirty tricks that came afterwards in the 2000 election. Democracy is not a permanent state of grace that certain ‘advanced’ nations attain to. In 1000 years time, it will probably be seen as a quaint phase that some countries went through for a while. So Chiron in the sign of Aquarius, which is associated with democracy, is asking us to make these sorts of reflections.
Chiron is also associated with attempting the impossible, which we saw with Iraq, and which we are also seeing with Barack Obama, with his promises to heal divisions, to bring the country together. Politicians love to make these sorts of promises. Remember George Bush’s promise to be bi-partisan (which he remarkably had been as governor of Texas - unlike Obama, he actually had a track record in this respect)? To what extent Obama will succeed in this very difficult task, and to what extent it will be exposed as naivety on his part, remains to be seen. He has used very fine words, but has not been very concrete. Regarding Israel and Palestine, and his wish to see Jerusalem become the undivided capital of Israel, Obama’s attitude will do anything but heal divisions.
Neptune has also been hanging out with Chiron and the North Node, and in the case of American politics, this describes the powerful longing for redemption, for a figure who will bring some idealism back to the country after the dirty, dispiriting Bush years. This is all happening in Aquarius, which is the sign of the American people, the Moon, in the Sibly chart. That Moon at 27 Aquarius is closely conjunct Obama’s South Node, and Neptune will cross this point over the next couple of years. So it is a very heady brew for America to handle.
Astrologically, Obama connects powerfully with this current American longing for a saviour. A point to watch out for is that it is his South Node, not his North Node, that connects him with the American people. His way of connecting with the people is an easy game for him to play. It points towards his past rather than towards his future, and is therefore not a creative act for him.
So Chiron-North Node-Neptune is this combination of learning from past mistakes about the limitations of democracy, the need to broaden the Aquarian sense of brotherhood to include all nations and interests, and the longing for a new world and even a saviour figure. This combination of factors has been powerfully apparent in the US political scene this year.
I think that the reflection on the nature of democracy which Chiron and the Node are pointing to has another aspect for Americans: don’t kid yourselves that you have left monarchy behind. From a British point of view you have a monarchy in a much more real sense than we do. Ours is symbolic, it has no real powers, and our Prime Minister is not elected separately to the party that predominates in Parliament. The US elections are focussed on the choosing of one person to lead the country to a much greater extent than we have over here. That, to me, is like electing a King or Queen, and it shows in the way that the Kennedys, Bushes and Clintons have become like Royalty.
While we are currently seeing this need for Royalty through the lens of Neptunian longing and Obamania, it can also be seen through the US 10th House Saturn. The American astrologer Jessica Murray notes in her book Soul-Sick Nation: “The Jungian astrologer Liz Greene has made bold to suggest that in sharp contrast to its self-image, the United States – deep in its collective soul – yearns to return to a monarchy (an opinion, perhaps, only a British writer could get away with.) Saturn’s elevated placement in the 10th House bespeaks a strong-arm father-figure shored up by long tradition, against which the Jupiter/Sun square incessantly rebels – as the colonies did from the English king. Without a Big-Daddy form of government, Greene argues, the country does not know what to do with itself and founders like a teenager without parental guidance. Further insight about the US Saturn dilemma can be gained from George Lakoff’s Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think, which presents a model of the patriarchal dynamic between citizens and the state.”
My only comment here is that Liz Greene grew up in the US, though of British immigrant parentage, and has lived in Europe for decades. So she is an American commenting on the Americans, but from a distance!
Though we have had the North Node conjunct Chiron and Neptune this year, the exact conjunction between Neptune and Chiron won’t occur until Jan 2010 (though they will be within ¼ of a degree next May), very close to the US Moon. Last time this occurred was in Sept 1945, in the sign of Libra, another airy, civilised sign like Aquarius. This is a whole other subject, but it did correspond with the beginning of post-war reconstruction, in which the USA played a remarkable and civilised role. So maybe this time we will also see an America at its best.
4 comments:
A very thoughtful article, DR, and I thank you. Much to ponder here.
I wonder if there isn't another way to interpret the sublimated American yearning that Liz Greene sees as a longing to "return to a monarchy."
After all, a "King" or "Queen" is simply a materialistic version of a Divine Motivator (or Saviour, if you want that word).
The Aquarian symbol is a human figure who pours the Divine Waters out onto the world.
But it is in these hours that the human race is challenged to discover the Divine, those Waters, and that Bringer, within ourselves, and not conferred to an external source, be it human or institutional.
Each of us is the King and Queen of our unique lives, each of us holds and pours out the Divine.
Is that not the core ideal of democracy?
That this Divine authority and grace are what we each have, what we acknowledge and allow in each other, what we share, and what we work with upon the Earth.
This is interesting. I have my own NN/SN at Aq/Leo (24 degrees) and have really been feeling these issues ever since the nodes changed. I have been doing alot of work on becoming more community involved and letting go of more selfish behaviors. But it ain't easy. The eclipses should be quite an experience this year :)
I quite like Obama but found this satire from the online London Times hilarious:-
And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.
The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.
When he was twelve years old, they found him in the temple in the City of Chicago, arguing the finer points of community organisation with the Prophet Jeremiah and the Elders. And the Elders were astonished at what they heard and said among themselves: “Verily, who is this Child that he opens our hearts and minds to the audacity of hope?”
In the great Battles of Caucus and Primary he smote the conniving Hillary, wife of the deposed King Bill the Priapic and their barbarian hordes of Working Class Whites.
And so it was, in the fullness of time, before the harvest month of the appointed year, the Child ventured forth - for the first time - to bring the light unto all the world.
He travelled fleet of foot and light of camel, with a small retinue that consisted only of his loyal disciples from the tribe of the Media. He ventured first to the land of the Hindu Kush, where the
Taleban had harboured the viper of al-Qaeda in their bosom, raining terror on all the world.
And the Child spake and the tribes of Nato immediately loosed the Caveats that had previously bound them. And in the great battle that ensued the forces of the light were triumphant. For as long as the Child stood with his arms raised aloft, the enemy suffered great blows and the threat of terror was no more.
From there he went forth to Mesopotamia where he was received by the great ruler al-Maliki, and al-Maliki spake unto him and blessed his Sixteen Month Troop Withdrawal Plan even as the imperial warrior Petraeus tried to destroy it.
And lo, in Mesopotamia, a miracle occurred. Even though the Great Surge of Armour that the evil Bush had ordered had been a terrible mistake, a waste of vital military resources and doomed to end in disaster, the Child's very presence suddenly brought forth a great victory for the forces of the light.
And the Persians, who saw all this and were greatly fearful, longed to speak with the Child and saw that the Child was the bringer of peace. At the mention of his name they quickly laid aside their intrigues and beat their uranium swords into civil nuclear energy ploughshares.
From there the Child went up to the city of Jerusalem, and entered through the gate seated on an ass. The crowds of network anchors who had followed him from afar cheered “Hosanna” and waved great palm fronds and strewed them at his feet.
In Jerusalem and in surrounding Palestine, the Child spake to the Hebrews and the Arabs, as the Scripture had foretold. And in an instant, the lion lay down with the lamb, and the Israelites and Ishmaelites ended their long enmity and lived for ever after in peace.
As word spread throughout the land about the Child's wondrous works, peoples from all over flocked to hear him; Hittites and Abbasids; Obamacons and McCainiacs; Cameroonians and Blairites.
And they told of strange and wondrous things that greeted the news of the Child's journey. Around the world, global temperatures began to decline, and the ocean levels fell and the great warming was over.
The Great Prophet Algore of Nobel and Oscar, who many had believed was the anointed one, smiled and told his followers that the Child was the one generations had been waiting for.
And there were other wonderful signs. In the city of the Street at the Wall, spreads on interbank interest rates dropped like manna from Heaven and rates on credit default swaps fell to the ground as dead birds from the almond tree, and the people who had lived in foreclosure were able to borrow again.
Black gold gushed from the ground at prices well below $140 per barrel. In hospitals across the land the sick were cured even though they were uninsured. And all because the Child had pronounced it.
And this is the testimony of one who speaks the truth and bears witness to the truth so that you might believe. And he knows it is the truth for he saw it all on CNN and the BBC and in the pages of The New York Times.
Then the Child ventured forth from Israel and Palestine and stepped onto the shores of the Old Continent. In the land of Queen Angela of Merkel, vast multitudes gathered to hear his voice, and he preached to them at length.
But when he had finished speaking his disciples told him the crowd was hungry, for they had had nothing to eat all the hours they had waited for him.
And so the Child told his disciples to fetch some food but all they had was five loaves and a couple of frankfurters. So he took the bread and the frankfurters and blessed them and told his disciples to feed the multitudes. And when all had eaten their fill, the scraps filled twelve baskets.
Thence he travelled west to Mount Sarkozy. Even the beauteous Princess Carla of the tribe of the Bruni was struck by awe and she was great in love with the Child, but he was tempted not.
On the Seventh Day he walked across the Channel of the Angles to the ancient land of the hooligans. There he was welcomed with open arms by the once great prophet Blair and his successor, Gordon the Leper, and his successor, David the Golden One.
And suddenly, with the men appeared the archangel Gabriel and the whole host of the heavenly choir, ranks of cherubim and seraphim, all praising God and singing: “Yes, We Can.”
Perhaps the Neptune-NN-Chiron conjunction IS the desire for a Savior.
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