...One Year After the Leap
By John Townley,
October
2017
It’s
been a year since our initial analysis of America’s November dive
into the vortex,
and time for a progress report.
From a glance at the news, our take has so far turned out pretty much
on the
mark. The country is now in an historical state of discord (and a
puzzled world
with it) that on approach should have seemed obvious to almost anyone,
but
apparently wasn’t. If this were The Pilgrim’s
Progress,
we would be
moving backwards through the Slough of Despond, with the City of
Destruction looming
at the next crossroad.
What,
in America’s birth chart, would make a nation take
such a leap and then find itself floundering and helpless, confused and
conflicted, in the throes of at least momentary self-destruction,
unable to
find, much less pursue a clear inner or outer path?
We
have had some suggestions as to where the snares like in
the country’s
three-ring-circus
horoscope lie, but lately
it’s become much more evident how they are
manifesting. Here’s a look:
It's The Pilgrim's
Progress in reverse, as
Neptune transit mimics the Slough of Despond.
Neptune
The
number one issue both natally, and by transit and
progression, is Neptune. America has a history of Neptune crises,
but this may be the biggest ever. A look at the
progressed Sun tells much about the nation’s trends, and you
can read a fun
historical wrap here. Right now
it’s in mid-Pisces, and most notably, transiting Neptune is
running right on
top of it, most exact this fall. As in the more familiar Moon-chasing-Saturn phenomenon
(which the country is also
in the midst of, more later), the transits of both Neptune and Pluto
can
similarly squat on the progressed Sun for several years, by conjunction
or
other aspect, wreaking havoc in the process if it’s a hard
aspect. This is the
first time the conjunction has
happened to the U.S.A., but
it has already experienced
first the opposition and then the square, and neither was pleasant.
The
opposition (progressed Sun Libra, Neptune Aries)
occurred exactly (by heliocentric average) in late 1865, just as the
end of the
Civil War was reverberating across a devastated nation, split in mutual
opposition about secession and slavery. It was certainly a time of
horrid
uncertainty about the future, and the foundation of today’s
geographical
culture wars. What started as seemingly-bright ideals on both sides
resulted in
undreamed-of carnage for everyone, evolving into corrosive moral and
political challenges
that still linger today.
The
square (progressed Sun Sagittarius, Neptune Virgo) centered
in the spring of 1940, with the world already in crisis and America
wavering cluelessly
unprepared on the sidelines. It was also a Neptune return, and war
arrived
(appropriately by deceitful attack) when squaring Neptune conjoined the
national MC the following year 1941. In both transit/progression
combos, in
the
several years both before and after the exact aspect, the nation was
largely
unaware of what really was happening or what the cost of its illusions
and
unpreparedness would be.
Now
that the conjunction has arrived, it’s beginning to be evident
that nothing was clear to anyone on its approach, and all is
confusion
and disarray now. How long the wind-down and what its price will be is
anyone’s
guess.
October
2017 has a triple-play of malefic planets chasing progressions, exact,
with more to come.
But,
there is a further Neptune natal aspect and progression
that may provide a broader view: that is the natal Mars, itself square
natal
Neptune, that is now retrograde by progression (since 2006). It is
currently
back to
where it was in 1994 when America first gained its brief solo
superpower
status. It will be retrograde until 2085 when it will turn direct at
its earlier
progressed position of 1941, after which the
transiting-Neptune square to progressed-Sun will recur in 2089. It
seems to paint the picture of a native
with less
energy to spare and recurring long-term issues of uncertainty, distrust
from
without and confusion within, for generations to come.
The
natal affliction of Mars by Neptune is often blamed for
America’s tendency to hesitate before taking critical
actions, especially in
war, for reasons of tardiness (WWI and WWII) or goal confusion
(Vietnam, Iraq),
which enormously raise the cost of commitment. A pound of cure after
the fact seems always the way, resulting from the indecision to commit
to an ounce of
prevention
ahead of time (exacerbated by natal Sun square Saturn). Add Neptune
transits along
with Mars even more-weakened by progression, and you’ve got
quite a stew.
Pluto
Americans
are often noted for their determination, or their
stubbornness, not surprising with a natal Mercury-Pluto opposition.
Simply
put,
that’s a blockage (Pluto) of the mind (Mercury) that blinds
one to apparent
impossibility (so you actually overcome it, as in 1776) or to actual
impossibility (so it overcomes you, as in 1861). The former can
manifest as matchless
heroics, the latter sheer pig-headed stupidity (for a great definition
of stupidity, go here).
When we truly feel
certain about where we’re going, it’s the former in
charge, when we don’t it’s
the latter. With so much Neptune preventing certainty, the stupidity
factor
burgeons unchecked. Since the hard, more Uranus-like truth of any
matter has
gotten fogged out, the inclination to take a Custer-like extreme stand
on an
imagined (and often irrelevant or totally wrong) ill-informed position
becomes
the norm. Stubbornness and intractability substitute for faith,
delusion replaces
hope, and the selfie is raised as if it were the banner of love. The
end result
is disarray and defeat.
Stubborn
pig-headedness of Mercury opposite Pluto can be a two-edged sword, as
transiting Pluto nears.
The
astrological tangle with this particular natal aspect is
imminent, as by 2022 Pluto makes its return and folds right into the
natal
Mercury opposition axis, after first opposing the Sun (2014) then
Mercury
(2021).
Historically, hard transits to this haven’t been as
critically troublesome as
the Neptune problems, but it will likely make general concord more
difficult in
the face of the rest of it, especially as the next Jupiter-Saturn
conjunction
entering the bowl of outer planets makes the whole world change its
tune.
For
fans of even more recently-discovered planets, one finds
that transiting Eris, considered the planet
of discord,
is hanging in exact square to this Mercury-Pluto axis at 23 Aries
throughout, so
an
inclination toward general chaos spreading within (or being injected
from
without
by the likes of Russia or other adversaries) can only add to the
troublesome
mix.
Sun square
Saturn, with Eris crossing Mercury-Pluto, bring weakness and discord,
within and without.
Saturn
This
traditional malefic is also an important afflicter in
the U.S. chart, squaring the Sun. In an individual’s chart it
often indicates
lack of self-confidence, negative self-image, and the development of
bad coping
behaviors such as bullying to reinforce a weak or uncertain ego. By
transit it
manifests as a great weight to bear from passing circumstances, akin to
an
on-deck batter warming up by swinging two bats, except this batter is
actually
at the plate and expected to deliver. The current Saturn situation for
the U.S.
includes not only the brief transit of the Ascendant and first house,
but the
more lingering progressed-Moon-chasing-Saturn where the malefic weights
down
the national emotions for years at a time, in this case at its greatest
right
now and extending into the early 2020s. It’s actually a
blessedly quick run for
this phenomenon, which can sometimes run for decades if the speed of
the
progressed Moon is slow. Nevertheless, it adds immensely to the
weariness
jointly brought on by the confusion and combativeness already in play
from
Neptune and Pluto effects, and the increasing weakness and skittishness
of
ever-more retrograde Mars.
Trump, et al...
It
can be easy to simply say that all that ails the country
is personified by and embodied in the person of the recently-ascended
president and his minions -- that somehow he is the cause. His chart directly touches
all the
problematic natal
afflictions in
the U.S. chart, so he is certainly helping lead (or at least stir) the
fray.
But it was a near-majority of the voting nation itself that ushered him
in, by a combination of
the
enthusiastic support of a Mercury-Pluto-like minority and the
Neptunian, self-involved
lack of serious involvement of many more on all sides of the political
spectrum. The very afflictions of the nation’s nativity have
conspired to enable
the rise of a government that epitomize the astrological illnesses from
the
body politic in general down to the carelessly self-involved and
otherwise unaware individual
that
popular culture currently admires, nurtures, rewards, and feeds upon.
When
the sheep embrace the wolf, mutton is on the menu...
A Wild Card
And as if all this weren't enough,
Uranus, always the wild-card, is also in the mix, just now
hovering over America's progressed Venus. This has happened twice
before, once in 1783-84 as the Revolutionary War ended at home, and
later in 1898-99 marking the Spanish-American War, centered in the
Caribbean and Southeast Asia. What this time? Unexpected shocks,
anyone? There are plenty of possibilities on deck, both natural and
man-made (or a combination). Whatever it turns out to be (or may have
already been in motion, in retrospect), it
will fall on a populus wearily divided and uncertain of foot.
Forecast and Outcome
The
forecast?...there really isn’t one, except more of the
same until the storm is over and America, and the world, moves on to
recovery
through the wreckage. We are now passing the very center of the
Neptune
affliction, but there’s more to come later, here and
worldwide, in the changes
2020 promises. The 2017 hurricane season is more than just a metaphor
for what
is to come.
The
outcome? The damage done to America, as happened before
in earlier times of similar astrological affliction, will be long in
the
undoing, even when its better angels (like Venus-Jupiter) resurface to
heal and
repair. And the experience
will be marked not only by immediate
loss of control and perceived reliability worldwide, but by broad
recognition
that the nation's basic political system lends itself to such sporadic
disconnected
behavior and ought be accorded less power and reliance in the future.
Barring a
major stabilizing
of its rules, it is innately an entity not to be trusted.
The
record hurricanes of 2017 are more than a metaphor -- after the storm,
nothing will be the same...
As
with any individual in a community, even such
historically-brief aberrant conduct must leave lingering international
suspicion and distrust, along with a reputation that will reduce the
influence,
respect, and wealth that was America’s legacy after WWII.
Those looking at
the immediate past may just see mysterious paroxysms of worrisome
behavior, but
those inspecting the country’s greater history will recognize
these as cyclical
eruptions of defined character faults, tagged to the planets, that may
be
expected to
return. In a competitive world with an increasingly wider balance of
cultures
and power, especially considering the imminent outer-planet bowl
shift,
America may recover from its current distress, but will not likely
regain its former singular
global position this century, or perhaps ever.
