AQUARIUS & PSYCHE

Look and See. Listen and Hear. Touch and feel. Think and know.

Personal and Collective Psyche shifts paradigms as Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto change sign. Uranus takes seven years to change sign and eighty-four years to orbit our sun through all twelve signs. Uranus returned to Aquarius twice in the 20th Century. 1912 to 1919 marked a time of sudden and unexpected political and social upheaval that challenged our spiritual ideologies, faith in humanity, and trust in ourselves. Uranus passed from Capricorn to Aquarius in 1996. Had humanity chosen love and brotherhood over selfishness, convenience, and fashion, we’d be building bridges instead of walls!

1912 ~ The “Unsinkable Titanic” sunk on its maiden voyage, a karmic lesson in hubris.

1913 ~ Tornadoes and floods devastated Middle America, killing 3,000 people and costing over $100,000,000… a very expensive lesson in preparedness.

1914 ~ World War I began. Fear, hatred, and terror levied a heavy toll on humanity.

1915 ~ A German submarine torpedoed the British ocean liner, Lusitania.  

Alexander Graham Bell catalyzed mass communications when the first transcontinental phone call was made on Jan 25th, 1915. A powerful concept’s time had arrived.

Note: In Greek Mythology, the true father of the Cell Phone was Hermes, a real man and mystic teacher of Abraham. Hermes believed everything is made up of cells. Our brain is the hardware. Our job is to connect with other cells and fine tune our links.

1916 ~ would a wall have deterred Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary, from invading the USA? Woodrow Wilson retaliated by sending 6,000 troops into Mexico.

Official Gazette of London published the names of 80 United States firms suspected of trading with Germany. Prescott Bush was one banker who supported the Nazis.

1917 ~ USA declared war on Germany. Hitler’s enemies became our allies.

Bigotry was bountiful. The worst race riot in American history happened in Illinois.

Congress amended laws that prohibited beer, wine, and liquor from being profitable.

1918 ~ Daylight Savings Time began. Spanish Flu became the worst pandemic since the Bubonic Plague wiped out one quarter of Europe’s population in the 14th century.

1919 ~ Prohibition was ratified as the 18th amendment to our constitution.

Winners lose and losers win. Congress failed to ratify the Treaty of Versailles. President Wilson disagreed. He went on public tour to fight the decision and eventually died trying.

Male vanity and virility was popularized when Pfizer introduced Viagra. The stock market created a new form of temptation called “internet day trading”. DVDs became the fastest growing consumer electronics product in history. Bribes and drugs tarnished the Olympic Games. Our innocence and civil liberties were transformed by dissolving our ideas and delusions of private and social security and stability. What we think and how we feel about our past, present, and future is all that really matters.

Body piercing and tattoos became even more popular. President Clinton’s first political act of 1996 was to sign a welfare reform bill that made life harder for poor people. They became demoralized, deceived, and divided by the powers that be. Madeline Albright became the first female Secretary of State. Ellen DeGeneres became the first outwardly gay star of an ABC sitcom. Taiwan had its first democratic election. There were four major plane crashes. Why did we bomb Iraq when Uranus was still in Aquarius in 2003?

Neptune entered Aquarius in 1998. Neptune rules vision, illusion, delusion, and confusion.  The House of Representatives impeached Bill Clinton for giving “perjuriously false and misleading” testimony in front of a grand jury. Bill’s Hands, Sun, Mercury, Saturn, and Pluto are all in Leo. Bill was being Bill! Catholics and Protestants voted for peace in Ireland. Peace won.

The US government and twenty state attorney generals charged Microsoft with anti-trust practices for dominating the Internet access market. Bill Gates has a Scorpio Sun and intuitive hands. Imagine having the power to make a huge difference for our planet and humanity? What is the moral and spiritual responsibility of understanding that difference?

Neptune transited into Pisces in 2012. 1% of ego infected 99% of lesser ego with physical, emotional, ideological, psychological, philosophical, and spiritual dis-ease. Our delusions and deceptions about being old, poor, sick, and not being able to afford bad shit happening were dissolved. We must take responsibility for our values, hopes, fears, and choices. Fear and terror is preventing us from transforming our inequities.

Neptune in Pisces can symbolize billions of people seeking security, stability, and spiritual answers and finding despair, fear, and terror. If slavery and freedom are opposites, what shades of gray are you? The human race has become a race against bad shit happening. History will describe the 21st Century as an era of alternative facts and false profits for false prophets. HAVES rule have-nots. Plutocrats pay partisan politicians to permit the depletion and pollution of our planet, deregulation of public welfare, and control of health care, social security, and pension funds. We’re pawns, collateral damage, and statistics in a game of digital chess. Never in history have so many HAVES felt so fully entitled to manipulate and control so many have-nots.

Pisces and the Collective Psyche

Collective psyche transforms as outer planets travel from one sign to another. Uranus was the only outer planet in our solar system to pass through Pisces in the 20th century (1919 – 1928). Pisces naturally embodies Neptune, god of seas, who is always logged on to our personal and collective unconscious. I’ve illustrated the similarities and differences between 1919 and 2003 using portraits I’ve parodied of unlikeable people who’ve been conning us and getting away with it. Uranus finished its eighty-four year cycle in 2003. It passed from Pisces into Aries in December of 2011.

1919 ~ Worst baseball scandal (Black Sox) in history occurred when a grand jury brought indictments against eight players from the Chicago White Sox. Accused of throwing the 1919 World Series, they were eventually found not guilty.                              2003 ~ The illicit use of 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 began to thrive. Cannabis is medicinal.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED?

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 a Neptunian rebellion. Four million steel workers and miners walked off the job to protest ‘too many work hours’ with “inhumane pay”.

 

 

Three Presidents (Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover) held office during Uranus’s transit through Pisces. The 30th President (born July 4th), “Silent Cal” Coolidge said, “The business of America is business”. “Biological laws tell us that certain divergent people will not mix or blend.” (“Inferior Races” of Asia) ‘Government and business were in bed together. Their illicit affairs wielded temporary but absolute power over tightly woven webs of political, social, and cultural fabric. Plutocrats compulsively betrayed us for profit. Ironically, we call our co-dependency ‘Citizens United’ these days. The warning label should read: ‘unhealthy for 99%’.

George W Bush began the ‘Global War on Terror’ by invading Iraq and wrecking Iraqi culture and infrastructure. Halliburton was a proud sponsor. Healthcare was sacrificed on the altars of pharmaceutical and health insurance czars. Energy sources (protected by our armed forces) were given to energy barons. Security for airports and seaports was carefully placed in the hands of chosen special interest contractors. Social Security flirted with an untimely demise in the Stock Market. Loss of faith in government, business, and humanity characterized 1929!

Bush’s legacy is a case study in what not to do: out-of-control federal spending (domestic and military), government bailouts (financial and auto industries) and unfunded federal mandates (education reform). George Bush entered office with the largest $ surplus and left with the largest $ deficit in history. By the end of Bush’s Presidency in 2009, Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. Who’s not leaving our children behind these days?

Uranus through Pisces transformed traditional patterns of thrift and austerity into neo-consumerism and buying on credit. Two out of three average Americans had electricity, refrigerators, and washing machines. Spending on recreation tripled. Henry Ford announced new car colors ~ Green and Maroon as well as black. Mass tastes created mass markets for Rice Krispies, Lender’s Bagels, Mounds Bars, Betty Crocker, and Peter Pan Peanut Butter.

Credit and consumerism created the illusion of an easy convenient life. Movie houses, chain stores, and radio advertising proliferated. Uranus in Pisces inspired movie audiences to outperform church attendance. Consumer magazines like Modern Romance challenged moral codes. Critics felt 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”.

The KKK marched on Washington DC In 1925 with over 40,000 hooded members. Ku Klux Klan resurgence targeted African Americans, blacks, immigrants, Catholics, and Jews. New immigration laws reduced a stream of immigrants to a trickle when congress decided to reduce the flow of immigrants based on quotas of 150,000 new immigrants yearly. Are emigrants and immigrants created equal?

Intelligent Design ~ Creationism denied modern science. With Uranus in Pisces, Science and religion clashed. Man did not descend from apes. 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”. John Scopes, a high school biology teacher, taught the ‘theory of evolution’. Scopes lost bigly as the defendant in the infamous “Scopes Monkey Trial”.

Religious culture manipulated school curriculum to deal with obscenity, censorship, race, and sexuality in literature and theater. German Bauhaus School of Architecture with its less is more design philosophy, globally influenced architecture and product design. When I became an industrial designer in 1969, ‘Intelligent Design’ was about saving materials and money for manufacturers. Waste was unproblematic, except for disposal costs. ‘Intelligent design’ is about creating useful products using sustainable resources, efficient energy production, fewer pollutants, and finally reincarnating waste back into beneficial and constructive materials and products that add to humanity’s humanity.

‘It’s not what you do, but what you get away with that matters’. Donald Trump has taught us that common sense is not good sense. Good sense is humanity not losing its sanity. The human race has become a race against bad shit happening. As we futilely try to interpret fake news and decipher the illegible and deceptive writing on our walls, the real news is that a spiritually bankrupt human with a perverse sense of reality rules over us. Donald Trump thinks he knows what’s best for us and tough love and punishment are his gifts to us. We must all learn the hard way. We joke about greed, discrimination, prejudice, hate, and the hypocrisy of fools, but it’s not funny. Good sense is everyone becoming healthier, happier, more loving, and tolerant of ourselves, each other, and our planet. We need father figures who love us and want what’s best for all of us.

Much has happened since 1919. Not much has changed. 164 years passed and Neptune is in Pisces again from April 4, 2011 ~ April 1, 2025. It’s very difficult to predict Neptune’s nebulosity because he blurs lines between vision, illusion, and delusion. Pisces can symbolize a beginning of a new age of spiritual enlightenment or it can be the dusk of an age of denial, unhealthy attitudes, and bad behavior. Must our planet die to be reborn and rid itself of Spiritual Cancer? Must we appreciate what we have by abusing what we value? History continually repeats our need to learn the hard way.

Pluto relocated to Capricorn in 2008. Uranus passed into Aries in 2011. Pluto and Uranus mutually embody a transformation of character, energy, transportation, communications, business, politics, religion, and destiny. Great wealth powers illusions of great importance. Just because you have a huge footprint, doesn’t mean you have a big heart. Power pathologizes power, fosters denial of truth, feeds hopelessness, and catalyzes a disillusion of the will of 99%. Fear, hopelessness, and apathy are poisoning the Kool-Aid and we’re guzzling it.

DONALDEMORT AND HIS DEMENTORS

Donald Trump has shed much light on the meaning of his name. Money trumps values. Health insurance companies trump healthcare. Pharmaceutical companies, HMO’s, and hospitals prioritize profits over people. Compound fractures will never be healed with Band-Aids. Prisons privatized for profit are packed with petty lawbreakers (mostly black) proffered by plutocrats and politicians who make the laws, promote their enforcement, and profit from prison populations. Religion trumps spirituality; spawning fundamentalist, fanatical, and fiercely frantic followers instead of empowering loving spiritual people. Climate denial trumps science and good sense (for now). Donaldemort’s cabinet members’ mandates are antithetical to their missions. I call that demented!

Donald Trump is certifiably insane. Ask any psychiatrist. He’s a vampire who sucks our blood and doesn’t care about us. Do we need more fear, hate, and terror? Real wars are fought by have nots who surrender their vital essences so haves can squander them as they live in luxury.

 

Most underprivileged folk appreciate small acts of thoughtfulness and kindness. Haves who truly value what they’ve earned have a spiritual obligation and ethical and moral responsibility to choose how they can create meaningful differences for the rest of us. What differences can healthy intent and loving free will make? A wealthy person can send an electric car into space, but how can we rebuild our bridges and tunnels without healing our spirits? How can we help the less fortunate without empathy? How do we nourish and protect our planet without caring and having philosophical solidarity? How can we convince the invincible that we’re lovable? Our destiny is in our hands. 

Libra and the Collective Psyche in the 20th Century

Outer planets have a powerful influence on the personal psyche. They also symbolize massive transformations in the collective psyche as they change sign. When Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto transited the sign of Libra in the 20th Century, forces of good and evil clashed as we tried to find a balance between optimism, pessimism, tolerance, prejudice, progress, and regress. There was not much social or political stability.

While the planet Neptune (Pisces) transited the sign of Libra from 1942 to 1957, Nuclear weapons began proliferating. The first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.  President Truman instructed the Atomic Energy Commission to produce an even bigger `Hydrogen Bomb’. The United Nations began blossoming. International cartels became firmly established. The European Common Market was recognized. The civil rights movement flourished. Group psychology became popular. The World Council of Churches was established. Mother Francis Xavier Cabrini, founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was the first American citizen canonized by the Roman Catholic Church.

The art world went through dramatic changes.  Allen Ginsberg became a popular poet writing, “I have seen the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness”. When Neptune left Libra in 1957, the bestselling novel was Peyton Place   focusing on sexual intrigue in a small town. People born between 1942 and 1957 tend to be overly idealistic in relationships.  They must learn to harmonize, compromise, and sacrifice.

While the planet Uranus (Aquarius) transited the sign of Libra from 1968 to 1975, the spirit of our nation shifted from optimism to pessimism. Faith in progress turned into disillusionment with national institutions and world progress. This period was marked by useless popular inventions like the “pet rock”, giant platform shoes, and shag haircuts. Punk Rock, along with primal therapy and streaking became popular. The Supreme Court legalized abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy (Roe vs. Wade). Governor Wallace, a racial bigot from Alabama, announced that he would be running for President on the newly formed American Independent Party ticket. He threatened to repeal the “so called civil rights laws”. Meanwhile, the most popular show on TV was a comic satire about a racist named Archie Bunker. Diplomat Henry Kissinger approved the financing of clandestine CIA activities in Chile aimed at preventing the election and inauguration of Salvador Allende as Marxist President. Patty Hearst was kidnapped and brainwashed by the Symbionese Liberation Army. A military junta deposed Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie.

While the planet Pluto (Scorpio) transited the sign of Libra from 1971 to 1983, growers and pickers finally reached a settlement that ended a nearly ten year grape boycott (led by Cesar Chavez). Farm workers finally had bargaining power. This time marked the official beginning of the environmental movement. The Supreme Court upheld busing as a way of integrating schools.  An assassination attempt left presidential candidate George Wallace paralyzed from the waist down. Prime Minister Idi Amin slaughtered over 300,000 Ugandans and alienated his country from the rest of the world. Violence in Ireland forced Britain to seize control of Northern Ireland and suspend the Protestant controlled parliament. An arm of the Palestine Liberation Organization terrorized the 1972 summer Olympics in Munich. In 1975 South Vietnam crumbled, bringing an end to the Vietnam War. Because of the Karen Ann Quinlan case, `right to die’ rulings were enacted all across the USA. The serial killer “Son of Sam” was finally put away after terrorizing the male and female population of NYC. Religious fanatic Jim Jones got his followers to commit suicide. John Lennon was murdered.

“Imagine there’s no country,

It isn’t hard to do.

Nothing to kill or die for,

And no religion, too.

Imagine all the people.

Living life in peace”