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2003. All Rights Reserved
In last
month’s essay, we focused upon a challenging and stressful aspect
that has grabbed the attention of many astrologers, a t-square involving
Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto occurring in 2010. Given the symbolism involved
and drawing from ancient and intuitive wisdom, this time represents
both a turning point in history and a crucible of socio-culture forces.
The alignment suggests that old structures and traditional modes of
being will clash—and potentially clash violently—with new
ideologies and social organizations that have reached their point of
needing collective manifestation. If the 2010 t-square alignment is
to be the fulcrum of change, then what are the emerging possibilities
that will surface from the wake of this time?
The main
astrological alignment that informs the next decade involves a square,
or ninety degree, alignment between Uranus and Pluto. Essentially,
as Saturn moves out of alignment with both Uranus and Pluto, the
two outer planets remain in the configuration. Given an orb of ten
degrees, this square between Uranus and Pluto will remain in effect
through 2018. As a pairing, Uranus and Pluto correlate with times
of societal change, upheaval, and revolution. When these two planets
join forces, cultural structures are challenged and often transformed.
Instead
of predicting what changes may come from the Uranus-Pluto square
alignment ahead, it is advisable to look at historic precedent, to
see how the Uranus-Pluto cycle has manifested through history. Through
scrutiny of the cycle, it is apparent that these alignments have
a foundation-rocking, evolutionary, and progressive vector; it may
be argued that this cycle is the true engine and catalyst for the
tremendous push on cultural evolution that occurs from time to time.
The following represents only a small sampling of the potentials
that occur under this cycle, however, through focusing in on this
short list of possibilities, one can extrapolate the forthcoming
potentials that wait in the decade ahead.
Technological
Innovation and Changing Infrastructure
When Uranus
receives a major aspect from the other outer planets of Neptune and
Pluto, technological innovation tends to take a large leap forward.
That is, the acceleration of technological progress when Uranus is
in alignment to Neptune and Pluto is noticeably heightened and quickened.
During these times, novelty and technological improvement take a
discontinuous leap forward, and societies have to adapt very quickly
to the radical technological and scientific advances that are occurring.
Uranus alignments to Neptune and Pluto tend to revolutionize technology;
the steady and staid progress of evolving technology during typical
times is overturned and overthrown.
Reviewing
the last two conjunctions between Uranus and the other two outer
planets, we can observe the increasing velocity of technological
progress. In the decade of the 1990’s, Uranus and Neptune formed
a rare conjunction. During this time and seemingly from out of nowhere,
a technology that had its origins in the 1960’s, the Internet,
literally revolutionized global culture and economics. Although the
integration and development of the Internet and its potential is
still very much evolving, the liberation and creative birth time—the
extraordinary novelty and originality of the Internet—has occurred.
Like the
1990’s, the Uranus conjunction to Pluto in the 1960’s
also witnessed extraordinary technological revolutions and quantum
leaps forward in innovation. The most stunning and obvious example
of this period is witnessed in the golden age of space exploration.
Unparalleled in terms of its scope and advancement, the 1960’s
saw incredible breakthroughs in space exploration from the deployment
of the first satellites to the crowning achievement of sending a
man to the Moon. However, the 1960’s also realized science
and technical accomplishments that had more bearing on day-to-day
reality. Commercial computers became viable for the first time, the
workforce in Europe, Asia and the United States moved increasingly
into white-collar jobs demanding technological skills, and consumer
lifestyles embraced to a higher degree than ever before a hi-tech
world.
When reviewing
cycles involving Uranus and the outer planets, the conclusion can
be drawn that technological and industrial progress take giants leaps
forward in their momentum. In particular, the Uranus-Pluto cycle
makes sweeping changes in the technological and industrial landscape
and the backdrop in which we live irrevocably changes.
The Return
of Eroticism and New Levels of Sexual Expression
When Uranus
makes hard aspect to Pluto, our collective relationship to sexuality
changes. Pluto may be thought to rule the sexual centers inside of
us. Physiologically, we may think of Pluto as having association
with the reproductive and limbic systems, with their biological imperatives
to procreate and reproduce. More esoterically, we may think of Pluto
as having an association with the lower charkas, particularly the
second chakra. When Uranus forms a hard alignment to Pluto, awareness,
stimulation, and excitation occurs in our collectively owned sexual
energy and the reverberations and manifestations are profound. Uranus
aligning with Pluto acts doubly as a liberator of sexual energy—the
release and excitation of sexual centers—but also makes us
profoundly more aware of our sexual natures as well.
A look
at the last two eras in which Uranus and Pluto were in hard aspect
will illustrate the sexual dynamism of the alignments. Certainly,
one of the first associations one has of the sixties was the sexual
experimentation and liberation that was occurring at the time. The
repressive and strict codes of conduct that ruled sexuality and gender
throughout the decades prior to the sixties were rebelled against
as a burgeoning libido and primal life force began to culturally
intensify. This rising tide of sexual liberation could be mirrored
everywhere in the cultural discourse of the time. The sixties commenced
with the introduction of the birth control pill which allowed sexuality
to be cut from the umbilical cord of reproduction. To compliment
the sexual liberating technology, attitudes and mores toward sex
shifted rapidly and deeply at this time. What once was taboo became
tolerated; What once was prohibited now became permitted. Promiscuity
and free love experimentation were no longer relegated to a small
underground minority but were embraced by an entire generation of
youth.
However,
more than just a decade of sexual liberation and awakening, new levels
of heightened eroticism could be witnessed in the entire cultural
panorama of the time. Most noticeably, mainstream cinema began to
integrate material that was much more sexually erotic and explicit
in nature, ultimately leading to the creation of the rating system
at the end of the decade. Eroticism in movies was not reserved for
the exploitation films of the era but was incorporated into all genres:
from action movies (the popular James Bond series) to science fiction
(One Million Years B.C.); from horror (Psycho;
Hammer film productions) to comedy (The Graduate). Yet movies
were arguably only a reflection of what was going on a deeper level
of the collective psyche as all outlets of popular culture were,
as author Aurthur Marwick suggests, “rejoicing the natural
attributes of the body.”(1)
Witnessing
a square between Pluto and Uranus, the 1930’s, like the 1960’s,
also was remarkable for its heightening of eroticism and challenges
to sexual mores of its day. As the androgynous “flapper” style
of the 1920’s went into the decline, a new, more sexually potent
fashion—and the birth of the moniker “bombshell”—gripped
the collective. Due mainly to nude scenes of famous starlets like
Hedy Lamarr and Myrna Loy and the sexual explicit monologues of Mae
West films, The Hays code was a moral backlash which strictly enforced
what could and could not be shown in movies.(2) However, even as
the movie industry controlled a new sexuality that was emerging on
onscreen, they could not repress the emerging cultural eroticism.
The 1930’s saw the birth of the two-piece bathing suit for
women, the acceptance of sexual investigation in academia through
the Kinsey Report, and an escalating but temporary leniency toward
sexual behavior.
Brilliance in
Artistic Expression and the Revitalization of Pop Culture
Of all
the recollections that are to be evoked of the 1960’s by those
that experienced the decade, quite possibly the easiest and most
accessible memories are attached to the music and art of the time.
It is truly through art and music that archetypes receive their greatest
and most vibrant expression, and the decade reflects the combination
of Uranus and Pluto remarkably. In music, one only need to conjure
reminiscences of the beginning chords to Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple
Haze,” the thunderous opening riff to “Layla,” the
tumultuous crescendo to the Beatles “A Day in the Life,” or
the passionate, soulful voice of Janis Joplin. All these instances
capture the power and creative brilliance of the Uranus-Pluto synthesis.
In the visual arts and film, unforgettable images pervade from the
period: The harnessing of technology in the “Dawn of Man” sequence
in 2001: A Space Odyssey, the wild editing and camera movement
in Midnight Cowboy, the explosive color in Roy Lichtenstein’s
pop art, or the shocking experimentations from Andy Warhol.
Through
both visual arts and music, we see the combination of Uranus and
Pluto expressed transparently: The creative, rebellious mental fire
of Uranus meets with the passionate, soulful, and intense vibrations
of Pluto. The composite effect is extraordinary, leading not only
to revolutions in art and music, but to the most powerful and brilliant
creativity possible. It is no wonder that, aside from its chaotic
wildness and frenzy, that Uranus and Pluto are so associated with
peak experiences and collective mania.
The preceding
hard aspects between Uranus and Pluto before the 1960’s also
show the powerful and creative stirrings of the combination. In the
dancehalls of Harlem was birthed Swing, a genre, like Rock, that
would profoundly influence pop culture. As the Uranus-Pluto square
of the 1930’s reached its tightest orb, Swing possessed American
culture. As critic Gary Giddins writes, “Swing music was an
electrifying development in American popular culture…It…unleashed
forces that, I think, people didn’t know existed.”(3)
The start of the century witnessed an opposition between Uranus and
Pluto and, like Rock and Swing after it, Ragtime was a musical phenomenon.
With its infectious syncopations and incredibly catchy hooks, Ragtime
started a short-lived but undeniable cultural obsession.
The combination
of Uranus and Pluto—mesmerizing, powerful, and wickedly creative—creates
a sort of phenomenal grip on the popular imagination. More than just
correlating with fads or trends, Uranus-Pluto times are associated
with manias (as in“Beatlemania”) crazes(“the latest
craze”), and rages(“it’s all the rage”).Thus,
the archetypal energy of the combination is very much responsible
for injecting a pulse into dormant or dying cultural expressions.
Given its Promethean intensity, the Uranus-Pluto phenomenon is undeniable
in its extraordinary genius and force.
Holding the Larger
Framework
The 1960’s
may seem like a curious anomaly in these rather conservative and
even-tempered times. However, astrology illuminates the cyclical
nature of history and demonstrates the recurrence of archetypal patterns
that lie beneath the stream of cultural evolution. Given this perspective,
the 1960’s must seen as a seed or birth time, a time which
rebelled against cultural norms of the day and which liberated, awakened,
and excited new potentials to replace dying and outworn modes of
expression. If the conjunction between Uranus and Pluto is to symbolize
an origin of new values and modes of expression, then the subsequent
square alignment between Uranus and Pluto—occurring between
2008 through 2018—is symbolic of the struggle to manifest and
midwife the potentials of the conjunction in a more enduring and
effectual manner.
As exciting,
dynamic, and creative are the potentials of Uranus-Pluto times, they
are also highly chaotic, destabilizing, and even destructive. This
essay has highlighted some of the more positive potentials of the
Uranus-Pluto combination, however, as extraordinarily powerful and
profoundly liberating these eras can be, they are also “crazy-making,” undermining,
and highly disorienting. The sciences of chaos and complexity teach
us that in order for a system to evolve and survive, stasis and equilibrium
are not the answer. On the contrary, when pushed far-from-equilibrium,
systems are forced to experiment, challenge, and create, often coming
up with brilliant and novel solutions and new ways of relating. Uranus-Pluto
times push cultures to the edge of chaos, forcing growth, change,
and novelty. May you live in interesting times!
(1) Marwick, Arthur. The Sixties. (18)
(2) In his book, Pre-Code Hollywood, Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection
in American Cinema, author Thomas Doherty argues that Hollywood films
between 1930-1934 were at their wildest, sexiest, and most violent.
(3) http://www.pbs.org/jazz/time/time_depression.htm
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