Personal and Collective Psyche transform as outer planets change signs. The only outer planet to pass through Pisces in the 20th century was Uranus (1919–1928). Uranus, symbolic of sudden change, completed its eighty-four year cycle and passed through Pisces from 2003–2011. Pisces is ruled by Neptune, god of the seas, eternally linked to our personal and collective unconscious. Uranus moved to Aries in December 2011 and begins its final journey through Taurus in April of 2019. Stock markets and interest rates may fluctuate when smart investors and psychologists realize that fake news is real news when enough people believe it. I’ve illustrated historical similarities and differences between 1919 and 2003 with documented facts and parodied portraits of politicians, priests, and predators who continue to con us and get away with it.
1919 ~ worst baseball scandal (Black Sox) in history occurred when a grand jury brought indictments against eight players from the White Sox. Accused of throwing the 1919 World Series, they were eventually found not guilty.
2003 ~ complicit use of illicit steroids was the biggest scandal in modern baseball.
Bottle of bonded medicinal whiskey
“For Medical Purposes Only”
1919 ~ Eighteenth Amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors, which encouraged distilling, brewing, and bootlegging.
2003 ~ George W. Bush prohibited Medicare from negotiating drug prices. Black markets for drugs from India and Canada thrived. Cannabis became medicinal.
1921 ~ formal investigations into the Teapot Dome oil scandals were initiated.
2003 ~ USA invaded Iraq under false pretenses to secure oil resources.
1924 ~ worst tornado in US history obliterated 35 towns in Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois.
2005 ~ Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.
1919 ~ World War I ended; consumerism, immigration, discrimination, fundamentalism, and extremism grew. Uranus in Pisces spawned Neptune rising as four million steel workers and miners walked off the job to protest ‘too many work hours’ and “inhumane pay”.
2003 ~ increased wage inequality between workers at the top, middle, and the rest of us, affected overall productivity, resulting in less wages and compensation for a typical worker. Real wages and compensation continue to stagnate.
Four horrible conservative Republican Presidents (Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, and George W Bush) held office while Uranus was in Pisces. The 30th President (born July 4), “Silent Cal” Coolidge said, “The business of America is business”. He also told us, “Biological laws tell us that certain divergent people will not mix or blend (Inferior Races of Asia).” Some things never change. Government and business enjoyed their time in bed together. Illicit affairs wielded temporarily absolute power over tightly woven webs of political, social, and cultural fabric. Plutocrats seduced and betrayed humanity for profit. Ironically, we call our dependence on corporations ‘Citizens United’. The warning label should read: ‘Unhealthy for 99%’.
Mission accomplished? In 2003, Uranus entered Pisces again. George W Bush began his ‘War on Terror’ carelessly wrecking Iraqi culture and disabling their energy infrastructure. Dick Cheney’s ex-employer, Halliburton, became a proud sponsor and benefactor of the war. Energy sources (wars) were rewarded to energy barons. Security for airports and seaports was carefully placed in the hands of chosen special interest contractors. Public Health Care was sacrificed on altars of pharmaceutical companies and health insurance czars. Social Security flirted with an untimely demise in the Stock Market.
In 1929, loss of faith in government and business infected humanity, and catalyzed the stock market crash! A lesson of GW Bush is a warning of what not to do: out-of-control federal domestic and military spending, government bailouts for financial and auto industries, and unfunded nebulous federal mandates like educational reform that transformed substantial surpluses into huge deficits. Democrats controlled both houses of Congress until the end of Bush in 2009.
‘No Love’ is not ‘Tough Love’. One obligation and responsibility of wealth is truth and justice. Having great wealth is truly valuing family, friends, everyone, and everything else. The purpose of wealth is to be accountable, choosing a worthy cause and practically and effectively sharing whatever resources it takes to make a real difference.
Uranus in Pisces transformed traditional patterns of thrift and austerity into neo-consumerism and buying on credit. Two out of three Americans had electricity, refrigerators, and washing machines. Spending on recreation tripled. Henry Ford created new colors, green and maroon, as well as black. Mass tastes energized mass markets for Rice Krispies, Lender’s Bagels, Mounds Bars, Betty Crocker, and Peter Pan Peanut Butter, and many others.
Credit and consumerism created the illusion of an easy convenient life. Uranus in Pisces inspired movie audiences to out attend church audiences. Movie houses, chain stores, and radio advertising proliferated. ‘Modern Romance’ magazine challenged moral codes. Critics believed consumerism was driving Americans into a soulless existence of materiality and conformity. Writer Sinclair Lewis highlighted humanity’s illusions and delusions, blaming mass production and consumption for “having created a bloodless, loveless, and standardized world”, a very scary reality.
Which religions are practicing what they are preaching? Are emigrants and immigrants equal? Evidently, God commanded the KKK with over 40,000 hooded members to march on Washington DC in 1925. The resurgence targeted African Americans, blacks, immigrants, Catholics, and Jews. New immigration laws reduced a stream of immigrants to a trickle while congress decided to hinder the flow of immigrants based on quotas of 150,000 new immigrants yearly. Sound familiar?
Uranus in Pisces catalyzed a clash between science and religion. Intelligent Design and Creationism ignored modern science. Tennessee legislators voted it unlawful for any teacher in a state supported school, “to teach any theory that denies the story of man’s creation as taught in the bible”. Man descending from apes was unacceptable. John Scopes, high school biology teacher, taught ‘theory of evolution’. Scopes lost in the infamous “Scopes Monkey Trial”.
Religious culture manipulated school curriculum to cleanse obscenity, promote censorship, and discriminate against race and sexuality in literature and theater. No child was left behind. The German Bauhaus School of Architecture’s ‘less is more’ design philosophy influenced architecture and product design on a global scale. How many yachts do our savior oppressors need?
I was an industrial designer in 1969. At that time, ‘Intelligent Design’ was saving materials and money for manufacturers. Waste was not a problem, except for clean-up and disposal costs. Designers didn’t realize our planet was no bigger than our ability to infect her with a fatal dose of humanity’s own disease. Ignorantly and egoistically, I depleted, wasted, and polluted our natural resources. I rationalized my actions by creating fashion and justified my decisions by ignoring their consequences.
‘Intelligent design’ is not ‘smart design’. Smart designers create useful products and services using sustainable resources, efficient energy production, fewer pollutants, less waste, and finally reincarnating whatever waste remains into beneficial and constructive materials and products that add to humanity. The handwriting is on the wall. Humanity must shift a paradigm of living lies, to seeing, understanding, accepting, and embracing truth. Hate must be transformed by love and letting go of fear.
‘It’s not what you do, but what you can get away with that matters’. One clear lesson Donald Trump has taught us is common sense is not good sense. Losing our sanity doesn’t make any sense. We interpret fake news and decipher illegible and deceptive writing, while all news has become morally and spiritually bankrupted by leaders with perverse senses of truth. Emperors believe they know what’s best for us, weaving webs with warps of ‘no love’ and wefts of ‘tough love’. We joke of discrimination, greed, prejudice, hate, and hypocrisy of fools. It’s no joke. Being healthier, happier, more loving, and tolerant of ourselves, each other, and our planet is the only thing that makes good sense. We need leaders who can call on their courage, strength, wisdom, and grace to love us and do what’s best for all of us!
Much has happened since 1919. 164 years passed as Neptune transited Pisces from April 4, 2011 ~ April 1, 2025. It’s hard to foretell Neptune’s nebulosity because the lines between vision, illusion, and delusion blur. Pisces embodies endings of ages that begin new ages with spiritual enlightenment. The dusk of denial is the dawn of truth. Bad behavior is pandemic. Attitudes haven’t changed much. Must we die to be reborn? Why can’t we appreciate what we have when we lose what we value? History repeats its desperate and disparate need to teach and learn in the hardest ways possible. Has Neptune in Pisces catalyzed Spiritual Cancer?
Pluto entered Capricorn in 2008. Uranus entered Aries in 2011. Pluto and Uranus combine to suddenly and unexpectedly transform character, energy, values, communications, business, transportation, health care, relationships, creativity, philosophy, politics, purpose, religion, spirituality, and our destiny. Greed is driven by Wealth, Power, and the Illusion of Self Importance. Huge footprints don’t mean huge hearts. The pathology of power fosters the denial of truth. Feeling futility catalyzes the delusion and disillusion of the will of 99%. Fear, hopelessness, and apathy are poisoning the Kool-Aid and too many of us are guzzling it.
Nonsense trumps good sense. Money trumps values. Religion trumps spirituality. Climate denial trumps science. Health insurance companies trump healthcare. Humanity is trumped by HMO’s, pharmaceuticals, and hospitals that prioritize profits over people. Prisons are privatized and trumped by profiteers, packed with prisoners (mostly black), proffered by plutocrats, and promoted by politicians who create laws that promote their own enforcement and profitability of prison populations. Prison hatcheries spawn fundamentalist and fanatical behaviors and frantic followers.
Vampires don’t love us. They suck our blood. Wars are fought by have nots, who surrender their vital essences to Plutocrats, who squander them in luxury and leftovers. Why do we choose harmers over farmers? Do we really need fear, hate, and terror? Who are the real vermin and what should we do about them?
‘LOCK THEM UP’
Haves who are lucky enough to have earned what they have, and know how lucky they are, have great moral, ethical, and spiritual obligations and responsibilities to themselves and others. What are our ethical, moral and spiritual responsibilities and obligations? As we help ourselves, we must help others. How can we protect our planet and still have what we need? How can we be more mentally and emotionally stable? How can we renew our topsoil, clean our water and air, and employ renewable energy sources. We can send electric cars into space, but can we transform travel, bridges, tunnels, and not build more walls? Conceive the inconceivable. Healthy intent and free will makes a huge difference. Where is love?