November 11, 2019. A rare astronomical event will occur today. Retrograde Mercury, at 18 degrees of Scorpio, will visually transit across the face of the Sun in Scorpio. Here’s a description of the physical event, via The Old Farmer’s Almanac. Tomorrow will feature a full moon in Taurus.
Though Mercury will only appear
as a tiny image in a telescope, the metaphysical implications can be
profound. Brilliant flashes of insight could
illuminate poisonous paradigms and expose dishonest secrets.
Death, decay, and degradation are Pluto’s mission, while Mercury enjoys many fun and interesting projects on multiple planes of consciousness. Mercury is the Roman god of communication, mischief, and wisdom. Mercury was also responsible for being a liaison to Pluto for his siblings. Death is a powerful opponent. The seduction turns Pluto on, but the betrayal gets him off! Pluto tempts innocence with perversions clothed in trust, guilt, shame, and dark secrets.
The human race has become a
race against bad shit happening. We’re sick and our Mother is sick because we’ve
damaged, depleted, and polluted her body, clogged her respiratory and
circulatory systems, and abused her spirit. It’s miraculous that she still loves
and allows us to continue to be selfish, petty, and wasteful.
Black and White are opposite extremes of physical and metaphysical laws that manifest by degree in varying shades of grey. We preach Love and practice Hate, poles of like and dislike. We’re hypocrites, living in an insane world. Everything is ass backwards. Revealing our secrets is like cleaning septic tanks with our tooth brushes. As Hermes (Mercury) said, “The lips of wisdom are closed, except to the ears of understanding.”
Today is Veteran’s Day. It’s a special day to honor those soldiers who have fought for our country. Our culture was built on the backs of Veterans. This is a good day to think about what we’re willing to give our lives for. It’s also a good day for critical thinking in general and forgiving!
Imagine a President who
chooses good will toward all. Imagine leaders who exercise the authority and
responsibility to love and nourish our planet and all of its inhabitants. Imagine
media having a mission to raise human consciousness through honesty and
integrity. Imagine a world where religion is guided by spirituality. Imagine
the potential for good health and happiness for all.
It’s easy to see how easy it
is to choose hate, fear, and intimidation when there’s a steady diet of it
coming from morally and spiritually bankrupt religious fundamentalists and partisan
politicians. Mercury is giving us the opportunity today to see our truths
through the veils of lies and deception. When will we wake up and smell the garbage?
Why must we lose what we value to value what we had?
Scorpio is a fixed feeling type. Having a Scorpio Sun, Moon, houses, aspects, planets, or planetary placements doesn’t guarantee a Scorpio personality. Having Scorpio hands with long rectangular palms and long stiff fingers and large stiff thumbs does. The consistency of those hands is denser and skin less elastic than Cancer and Pisces. Head and life lines interlace at their start, embodying a tendency to fight change and procrastinate at beginnings and endings. ‘Letting go’ is a huge challenge, even when there’s no choice. Another big challenge is caring too much what others think.
No matter your archetype, long broad nails and straight pinky fingers represent more open and frank people. Dominant first and third phalanges on rounded and conical fingertips embody a healthy mix of intuition and practicality. Loop fingerprints symbolize adaptability and social ability. Developed knots on second joints need physical order. Developed first knots need mental order. Very large knots often belong to OCD people.
Vertical lines within a lifeline represent intimate relationships. Balls of the thumb with no lines within the lifeline are untrusting and untrustworthy, though they might not know it. They mistake desire and passion for love and end up becoming jealous and possessive. Scorpio can have many wonderful qualities, but Scorpio is also a tale of the tail of the Scorpion. Now is a good time to tell a tale of Scorpio with Sun, Moon, Mercury, and Venus currently transiting Scorpio. Mercury will be Retrograde in Scorpio on Halloween. It’s a great time to talk about the mythology of Scorpio and explore how the dark side of Scorpio is affecting our humanity and planet. The ball of thumb on the left in the picture above is simulated. It belonged to a child serial killer. Click here to read his story.
mark seltman
My Gemini sun and hands embody my Gemini behavior. Scorpio ascends in my natal chart, closely conjunct the asteroid Chiron (hand). Jupiter in Scorpio in my first house is a singleton in the bottom hemisphere of my natal chart. Pluto in Leo in my tenth house is closely conjunct Saturn in Leo which straddles my Leo midheaven. My Sun Uranus and Venus Node conjunctions are in Gemini in my 8th (Scorpio) house, joined by Vulcanus, Vertex, and a few asteroids. Scorpio rules my unconscious. As a metaphysical reader and counselor, I hear a lot of secrets. People tell me things they’ve never told anyone else because they believe I already know them. They think I can see more than I can. Of course, in the final analysis, it’s not what you see, but what you say and how you say it that matters.
When Saturn in Scorpio transited my ascendant in November of
2012, it squared my natal Saturn Pluto conjunction, compelled me to strengthen
my foundation, build more stable structures, and construct my life with less
distraction and more discipline and focus. Saturn forced me to set realistic
goals and challenged me to let go of everything and everyone that wasn’t
working for me. It wasn’t easy, but I did. Seeing clearly, listening carefully,
and thinking critically, has enabled me to rise from the ashes.
Jupiter in Scorpio has been a blessing and a curse for me. My natal Jupiter is within minutes of opposing my very stubborn 7th house Mars in Taurus. It’s trine my very sensitive ninth house Mercury in Cancer. Looking for shortcuts and easy paths to success has been a challenge. Coming out of the shithouse smelling like a rose has been the easy part. William Blake said, “The path of excess leads to the palace of wisdom”. I know.
Where’s Greta? EXPELIOSIS!
Pluto, Roman god of sex, transformation, and death is ruler of Scorpio, lord of darkness, and master of the sexual orgasm. In ancient Greece, Hades was god of the underworld. Hades had the nastiest job because his brothers and sisters were having fun controlling living people. Hades was king of the leftovers and waste. In tarot, the High Priestess, Queen of Cups, and Death card are ruled by Scorpio. Voldemort, Darth Vader, the Mummy, and the Big Bad Wolf are modern versions. Religious extremism, politics, and big business are Pluto’s playgrounds. It’s not what you do, but what you can get away with that matters. Anger, fear, hatred, prejudice, and punishment excite and beckon Donaldemort’s Dementors who are determined to terrify and control the rest of us…
My question is what responsibility
do Mega-Haves have to help support have nots. Billionaires can use their free
will to decide what they want to champion, but they must support a humanitarian
cause. Who will repair infrastructure? Who will help harness natural energy?
Who will promote sustainability? Who will manage communications, push mass transit
and alternative transportation, intelligently design and manufacture new products
and then plan for their corresponding distribution, consumption, and disposal? Who will help us acquire healthcare and
education for all? What’s the cost of a healthy planet? How much to feel well? How much does thinking
critically and living creatively cost? What’s the cost of having a healthy body
and skin? What price for healthy circulatory and respiratory systems? What about the costs of having a satisfying
spiritual life?
REPUGLICANTS
The seduction turns Pluto on, but the betrayal gets him off. By encouraging terrorists, rewarding rapists, and worshipping religious fanatics, we’re all invited to spend an eternity in hell. The path of too many dark secrets leads to the palace of sociopathy. From first breath to final exit, Pluto impatiently awaits you with a kiss of death.
‘MY
PRECIOUS’
Scorpions make manipulative bosses, mean spirited jailers, abusive parents, and jealous partners who hide their true feelings. It’s especially hard to deal with the shadowy unstable side of Pluto’s emotions. Executioners, undertakers, coroners, morticians, and garbage men, along with power hungry plutocrats, partisan politicians, and spiritually bankrupt religious fundamentalists and hypocrites have strong Scorpio in their symbolism. Your friendly neighbor, a model citizen, devoted husband, loving father, loyal friend, and faithful parishioner dies. His family finds pornography, secret love letters, sadistic and masochistic sexual supplies, illegal drugs, and concealed money. Alternative facts are opaque, while hindsight is transparent.
False tweets and fake facts create opacity and disguise secrets of greed, bigotry, hatred, and sexual perversion. Tyrants rationalize the most bizarre behaviors because they believe they can get away with them. And they do, if we let them. At this moment, many are getting away with philandering, sexism, insider trading, religious hypocrisy, and poisonous partisan politics. Our deepest darkest fears and terrors are propelling humanity towards mental, emotional, moral, and spiritual bankruptcy. Evil Priests feign love and compassion as they physically, mentally, and spiritually rape the innocent souls they were entrusted to protect. Fear, guilt, shame, and remorse safely guard their secrets.
“Money talks and bullshit walks”. Plutocrats control humanity’s destiny. Republican partisan politicians have become morally and spiritually bankrupt sadists, who derive pleasure from harming have-nots. Fearful poverty minded Democrats desperately scrape the bottom of the barrel as they ask us to sign their petitions, fill out their surveys, and pledge loyalty to too many urgent causes as they beg for a few shekels. I sign and give as much as I can to worthy causes, but it’s like applying a Band-Aid to a compound fracture or placing a drop of potable water in an ocean of poison. Humanity’s ideological, philosophical, and spiritual paradigms must shift as the human race has become a race against horrible bad shit happening.
Our planet and social cultures have been corrupted by a handful of greedy moguls who control our food, shelter, healthcare, energy, communications, transportation, raw materials, manufacturing, marketing, retailing, finance, religion, and politics. Plutocrats devalue democracy by placing greed over giving, by embracing religious fundamentalism over spirituality and true faith, and by choosing consumption, waste, and denial over truth, good sense, and planetary good health. 2,153 billionaires have great social responsibility. Humanity needs them (and everyone else) to embrace caring and meaningful causes.
“It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt”. Many of life’s most painful lessons are a direct result of choosing money over values and religion over spirituality. It’s easy to rationalize the blackest behavior when your head rules your heart. “I never intended to hurt anyone”. “No one did anything they didn’t want to do”. “I may not have told the whole truth, but I didn’t lie”. “I’m sorry for my part”. Why must we lose what we’ve taken for granted to learn to value it? Scorpio holds the key to unlocking our secrets!
Cancer is a cardinal water sign, ruled by our moon. Our moon influences our oceans and tides. Cancer is the beginning of summer and the symbolic mother of the USA. Let’s examine the transits of Pluto and Uranus through Cancer in the 20th Century and their influence on personal and collective psyche. I’m publishing this post as our Sun is entering the sign of Cancer.
Pluto (planet of sex, death, transformation, and other people’s
resources), transited Cancer from 1913 to 1938. Partisan politics, nationalism,
and isolationism transformed world ideologies. World War I became World War II.
In 1913, President Wilson pressed a button in the White House that blew up the
Gamboa Dike at the Isthmus of Panama, creating a canal between oceans, and
transforming intercontinental travel by sea. Wilson legislated the Carter-Owen
Bill that established a Federal Reserve System to transform the strangle hold
on the nation’s currency and credit system by banks. Now Plutocratic corporations
are strangling us.
Daylight Saving Time
transformed our nation’s clocks and schedules. Transcontinental telephone
service transformed international communications. World infrastructures and
atomic energy transformed planetary energy sources and usages. NBC was the
first Nationwide Broadcasting Company. Wall Street prospered from war while
soldiers earning $16 per month died in the trenches. President Wilson
established a lottery style draft promoting patriotism. Congress passed the
Espionage Act fining draft dodgers $10,000 and imposing a twenty-year jail
sentence. No child was left behind.
“Do your bit” encouraged citizens to buy Liberty Bonds.
Wheatless-meatless days were promoted. The end of 1919 marked the end of the
Influenza pandemic that caused half a million deaths and a quarter of the
nation’s population to be sick. Prohibition banned liquor for all citizens.
Black markets and bootlegging industries flourished. Black leader Marcus Garvey
organized ‘The Empire of Africa’ with 500,000 followers. He led the largest
mass exodus of Blacks with the least sense of brotherhood in U.S. history.
In 1929, doubt, fear, and panic upset our stock market as we faced our darkest hour. Foundations and structures of home and family transformed. Pluto in Cancer birthed many people who spent their lives taking care of family. Overdeveloped senses of responsibility, guilt, and obligation motivated their children to become dropouts and runaways. That hasn’t worked either.
Uranus (planet of sudden unexpected change, rebellion, and revolution) transited the sign of Cancer from 1949 to 1955. Mothers stopped staying at home and went to work. Women began wearing the “bikini”, a fashionable French bathing suit. ‘I Love Lucy’, a comic show about a housewife and her Cuban bandleader husband became the most popular show on TV. Ranch houses and basement playrooms were popular. The subconscious mind was explored in psychology. If you were born between 1949 and 1955, your psyche is somewhere in time and space between rational and aware and oversensitive and fearful.
We may want to think twice before we elect (or appoint) another
Cancer President. Four USA Presidents were born under the sign of Cancer. George
W Bush (7/6/1946), with his intuitive hands, has an egocentric character to
match his Leo rising. George Bush revealed the worst qualities of
Cancer and Leo in his behavior, presidential intentions, and actions.
Check out these similarities between the four Cancer Presidents.
Like George Bush and Al Gore, John Quincy Adams finished second
in popular vote behind General Andrew Jackson. There was no majority. The
choice was put before the House of Representatives. House Speaker, Henry Clay,
swung the election to Adams. When Adams appointed Clay as Secretary of State,
Jackson followers cried, “Corrupt bargain”. “Of all the men whom it was ever my
lot to accost and to waste civilities upon, he was the most doggedly and
systematically repulsive. With a vinegar aspect, cotton in his leathern ears,
and hatred in his heart, he sat like a bulldog among spaniels.” W.H.
Littleton
President Calvin Coolidge shared a birthday with the Declaration of Independence. He was infamous for “holding his tongue”, earning him the title, “Silent Cal”. Two of his sayings were: “If you don’t say anything, you won’t be called on to repeat it.” and “The business of America is business.” “He was an economic fatalist with a God given inertia. He knew nothing and refused to learn”. William Allen White
The 38th President, Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr., didn’t know he was adopted until he was seventeen. Gerry didn’t lift a finger around the house. His wife, Betty performed all the domestic chores. As Speaker of the house, Ford passionately pleaded for escalation of the war in Vietnam. He urged “unleashing devastating air and sea power”. He failed to impeach liberal Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas as a favor to his buddy Richard Nixon. Ford granted Nixon a “full complete and absolute pardon” for all crimes relating to Watergate. Ford blamed democrats for a disastrous rate of inflation and warned that electing more would “jeopardize world peace”. He admitted to never reading books, but did find time to watch football on TV.
Congressman Robert Drinan said, “I cannot dislike him personally
— he’s cordial and gracious, but he’s consistently wrong and consistency is a
virtue of small minds. He’s never proposed a constructive solution to
anything”. Lyndon Johnson quipped, Ford “had played too much football with his
helmet off” ~ “Jerry’s the only man I ever knew who can’t walk and chew gum at
the same time”. Reverend Duncan Littlefair declared, “Ford isn’t a bad man, but
he’s dumb—dumb. He shouldn’t be dumb either. He went to school just like
everybody else”.
“The important thing is that men should have a purpose in life… it should be something useful, something good”
The Dalai Lama (Cancer) is “The Reborn Soul of Buddha”. Orpheus, singer, priest, healer, poet, and musician in Greek myth, he charmed and enchanted Death into letting him enter the matrix of collective unconscious to find his beloved Eurydice. After death warned Orpheus that he’d lose Eurydice if he looked back, a moment of weakness caused him to look back and lose her. The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 to live as a “simple monk” in a remote corner of Northern India. Unable to return, he chose to promote world peace and love. If hindsight is 20/20, then we must choose hindsight as we vote in 2020.
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.
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.
While the planet Uranus (
While the planet Pluto (