Pluto in Capricorn: The Ruling Party Rules

5.2.08


Nearly every astrologer (at least the ones who think Pluto is a worthwhile symbol) agrees that Pluto's transit through Capricorn has something to do with a deep (and likely painful) transformation of our power structures.

One needn't look far into the cultural ethers to see this happening in a big way—or how else can we read this crazy '08 presidential campaign?

Could we find any more poignant image than a matchup between John McCain, poster-child for old rich white conservative men (an ultra-traditional face of Capricorn), and either our first serious female or Black candidate (the agents of 'transformation')?

Now, I'm not saying either Clinton or Obama have the election wrapped up, just because we're due to have our view of government forever fucked with. If anything, my preliminary astro-intuitive glance at the candidates has me favoring McCain. But this whole shebang is so much larger than any of these candidates as individuals, I hardly think there's a potential outcome that, in itself, is cathartic enough to heal the United States.

I will offer this much, though: Obama is no great hope for salvation. Clinton is no demon in a dress (or is that 'pantsuit'?). And McCain is no brave maverick. These are all potent projections, straight from the nervous gut of our national culture.

We desperately crave a reprieve from our guilty consciences, praying that electing an 'articulate Black man' (notice how often that loaded word 'articulate' is used to describe him, as if we expect all males of color to speak like Mike Tyson) will wash the generations of blood off our hands.

We want our powerful women to be the type who give great hugs (a la Oprah), not the Hillary variety—smart, sly and sneaky, like most every male politician ever elected to a high office. If she's guilty of everything we accuse her of (namely, wanting to win, and isn't that the point of running?), then so too are the rest of 'em.

We wonder whether it's even possible for a conservative free-thinker to make it all the way to the top without pandering to a small group of neo-con ideologues and family-values tyrants (you know, the ones with all the campaign dough), regardless of what said thinker once claimed to believe. We watch the slide down the slippery slope, sighing at the answer in front of us.

I'm not one for cynical summations, so please look deep into my longer-range optimism when I say: I just don't see how any of this can possibly work out well… at least if we're looking for any short-term satisfaction.

From every side, this tangle is impacted. And how beautifully illustrated this is by the astrology of Election Day, when an opposition between Saturn ('keep things as they are') and Uranus ('shake things up at any cost') forms to exactitude… the first of its five peaks, which culminate in a potent cardinal T-square with Pluto in Capricorn in 2010.

Do 'things' (whatever they are) get resolved on Election Day… or are they really just getting started?

All the major players are wealthy individuals with lots of connections with lots of other wealthy individuals who are funding their campaigns… and each camp is undoubtedly linked to certain individuals who are probably pretty corrupt, kicking in their thousands and thousands so they might be given tax breaks or funding boons, free drilling or chopping rights to protected lands or pristine waters, lucrative contracts, tickets to state dinners, commemorative matchbooks, or one more memorable ride on the springy Lincoln Bedroom mattress.

The media? They're among the same connected elite, framing the context of political debate based upon whose most controversial comments will reap the greatest rating-dollars, cold hard cash to spend on overpriced chicken salad plates ('hold the bread!') alongside the very politicos who read those pre-scripted comments aloud for the cameras, lounging at luxurious resorts in St. Bart's, St. Tropez, the Maldives. Did we just find out that the Pentagon was actually feeding them their scripts? Wait, sorry for getting distracted—I meant to ask you about the Miley Cyrus photos.

Someone recently wrote, 'Conspiracy theory is a form of mental illness.'

What about willful ignorance of structural realities?

Sure, plenty of us should probably go in for that checkup, but, fuck: Our insurance doesn't cover it.