The Dakota Pipeline Protests and the 13th Sign of the Zodiac

According to motherjones.com, protesters began blocking the oil pipeline contruction sites in North Dakota on 22 August this year. Since then it has turned into a protest that has united the various Native American peoples. 

That unity sends a strong message: it stands for a humanity that has not lost its participation in nature, versus modern, technological man, who has lost that connection to nature and therefore to himself. This is a kind of madness. The dominant civilisation in this world of ours is mad, a madness that has been growing for thousands of years, when the disconnect began.

As the poet Ted Hughes said: "The story of mind exiled from Nature is the story of Western Man." 

Ruling this protest has been a Mars-Saturn conjunction in Sagittarius. The conjunction was exact on 24th August at which point (and for a couple of days before) the Sun, North Node, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter were all in Virgo, the sign of the cycles of nature. The North Node was square to Mars-Saturn and opposite Neptune, showing that this was a battle (Mars) against the establishment (Saturn) not just for the stopping of the pipeline, but for the soul (Neptune) of nature (Virgo). The Moon was in Taurus, emphasising the love of the natural world. The sign of Sagittarius shows the legal battle involved. 

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Obama has little to lose politically at this juncture in his Presidency, he may as well back these guys. He is very good at standing for all the right liberal things, and will make the ideal elder statesman; but unlike Bill Clinton, not very good at rolling up his sleeves and making change happen. Now is his chance. What are America's values?

The enduring aspect is a t-square between Saturn, Neptune and the North Node, which will last until November: so this protest is liable to run and run. It could become an issue in the Presidential campaign.

I said Mars and Saturn have been in Sagittarius. But they also conjoined at the start of the so-called 13th sign of the zodiac, Ophiuchus, which extends from about 8 to 26 Sagittarius. The start of a sign is a powerful place, it begins things. This sign is the subject of ridicule from traditional astrologers (see my blog defending Ophiuchus)  purely because it doesn't fit into their system.

Ophiuchus

But this idea of a 13th sign keeps presenting itself, via the BBC of all places. It has popular appeal, it intrigues people, and that is enough for me to say there is something real going on. A tradition stays alive when it responsive to how people feel, and it dies when it stands on its doctrinal correctness, which is what some astrologers are trying to do. So it makes a mess of the system, deal with it!

Ophiuchus portrays a man battling a serpent, and neither ever wins. It is Aquarius (man) and Scorpio (serpent). Technological man versus instinctive man. Humanity has always got itself into trouble when it thinks it has god-like powers, and this is attested to in many ancient stories. What we are experiencing now is a perennial problem. But it has become extreme, and it is at this time that Ophiuchus has presented himself, saying this problem has always been there and always will be, it is in the nature of being human. But it IS a problem, proportionality needs to be found, or the serpent will destroy you.

This struggle with deeper forces is part of shamanism, it is understood by indigenous spirituality. Ophiuchus was identified by the Romans as Asclepius, the healer. For the ancient Greeks, the figure was Apollo wrestling a huge snake that guarded the oracle at Delphi. So there are numerous connections here suggesting Ophiuchus as a shamanic figure, and these figures, in our world, are outside society, just as the 13th sign of the zodiac is anathema to traditional astrologers. And his emergence now seems to me to be pointing us towards the indigenous understanding of humanity's relationship with the natural world, for it is only mutual respect between humanity and the serpent that can restore balance.