January Update: Capitol Offences

It’s been four days since the Assault of the Capitol. Trump has Jupiter opposite his Pluto for all of January, and it can spur one to go too far with abuses of power.

 

    Sometimes this transit can stimulate a rather ruthless desire to get ahead. Most of us are tempted to cut corners, but that can have very unfortunate consequences, for this transit can indicate trouble with the law or even arrest. In fact you should do as little as possible to arouse the authorities against you, because this transit is so likely to create just that problem.

    - Robert Hand, Planets in Transit

 

Neptune Blues

On the blog here I haven't yet written about two Neptune transits that have had a strong effect on what we're going through. First, Neptune is square the nation's Mars right now, making everyone easily deceived. This is how I wrote of it back in my 2018 Report.

 

    Looking ahead, Neptune will be square our nation’s Mars from April 2019 – Feb 2022. This doesn’t bode well, since Neptune rules delusion and confusion, and Mars rules machines and war. When Mars is square Neptune, there’s a two-day transit that often involves drunk driving or getting lost in the fog, as when John Kennedy Jr. lost his way when flying his airplane to Nantucket. This is a three-year version of that, where our direction won’t be clear. And again, with the next election, deception will loom large.

 

I didn't expect the deception to be pushed even harder after the election, but here we are, with a good portion of the country believing the election was stolen. What Robert Hand says about this transit definitely sums up the rioters:

    Another danger with this transit is that you may become wrapped up in fighting for some terribly idealistic cause that has little chance of succeeding or of giving you any real satisfaction. All that you can count on is that you will be required to surrender your individuality for a "higher purpose," which usually turns out to be someone else's ego.

 

Also, for where it all started, Trump himself has Neptune square both his Sun and Moon for 2020-2022, seriously warping his perspective and judgment. Here's how I wrote of it in 2018:

 

    Neptune rules fog and delusion, and so there’s a much greater chance of both him gaslighting and himself being the victim of deception. It might also show a mental decline. It most likely signifies how he’ll be spreading conspiracy theories after leaving office and believing them as well.

 

Pluto: And Revolution in the Air

 

In 2020: The Year of Pluto I covered how Pluto, in returning for the first time to the place it was when the nation was born, brought about much the same feeling of the Revolution with all the racial and alt-right protests in 2020, and how that will go through the next two years.

What you've seen from those who took over the federal buildings in Michigan and now the Capitol, these are the types of people who actually started the Revolution. Those easily angered by propaganda, like the wildly inaccurate sketch of The Boston Massacre. And quick to use violence to force their way, as when they destroyed the Royal Governor’s mansion or burned the harbor master's own boat when he impounded a ship John Hancock was using to smuggle wine. Even smearing feces, as they did in the Capitol, was a common tactic in threatening Loyalists with warnings on the walls of their homes. And without even knowing of astrology, many of those extremists are pushing this theme, as when Lin Wood, one of the prominent conspiracy theorists, declared, “It’s 1776 in America again, and you’re not gonna take our freedom. We’re gonna fight for our liberty.”

Pluto: The Shadow on the News

In the 2020 report I wrote about how Pluto can signify the shadow, the part of ourselves we reject and hold at a distance, much like Pluto itself, which was rejected even as a planet. And how Pluto transits, like the Pluto Return the nation is going through now, dredges up that shadow—all the things that need to be cleared—and makes us face them. 

 

Scrolling through Twitter the last few months, many political commentators noticed this theme playing out as well.

    When Trump turned over the rock on the underbelly of America, I had no idea how much putrescence would crawl out. We’ve got a problem, America.
    - Jonathan Benner @BennerJonathan

 
    It makes me think of Carl Jung's concept of the Shadow: Trump and his supporters are a manifestation of the unacknowledged parts of our collective national consciousness...and at some point we need to recognize and deal with it.
    - Asha Rangappa @AshaRangappa

    The president’s effect is to embolden white supremacists, violent militias and anti-government extremists. He has been warned of this numerous times, yet he persists. He knows. He just does not care. And the country, I fear, will pay the price.
     - Bill Kristol @BillKristol, Washington Post, 10/16/20

 

    This is one of the major and necessary lessons of Trumpian pathocracy, and one that we've had to learn. Trumpism is a much needed confrontation with our shadow, showing us the unwanted, dark and repressed parts of ourselves as individuals and a nation. But also the hidden good.
    - Elizabeth Mika @yourauntemma

It’d be nice to say all that is behind us, but Pluto will be conjunct our Pluto for another two years, so there’s still lots of work to do on that front. Expect the issues of 2020—including racial injustice and tearing down old foundations built on those injustices, from statues to statutes—to stay with us and be resisted even as the ground shifts.