Ever read, Why Socialism? by Albert Einstein?

If you missed Why Socialism? by Albert Einstein, the May 1949 essay may have something important to say to us in 2011 especially given the horrendous state of our national institutions compliments of Wall Street and the Big Banks, national, and to some extent, local, politicians, and any other tentacle (or branch) of the global crime syndicate network that got the world into the financial and societal messes it’s in.

~:~

Astro-Note: several planetary factors and actors represent levels of class warfare/disenfranchisement/primal violence tactics used by Plutocracy in an Astrology map, but it’s the duo of Pluto with Chiron that says it all in one neat package. The last time they met in Great Conjunction was on Dec 30, 1999 @ 11Sag23; prior to that, another important meeting took place on May 21, 1884 @ 29Tau31. There are many things to be said about both hook-ups as they relate to societal and financial conditions, then and now. I hope eventually to have a chance to discuss the Pluto/Chiron topic with you more fully.

As for Socialism, a discussion on the Saturn (government; authority; management) and Neptune (secret; hidden; the masses; the media; propaganda; oil, gas, and water) combination of planetary energies would be of interest as well for together they may signify Socialism and/or Communism.

American Dream Awakes

Are we ‘living the American Dream’?

Not so much. But having  just published a new effort at Lim’s Limericks, I thought you might want to check it out (or not!)

Written in verse, it concerns America’s past and present with the current, ongoing, and difficult Saturn-to-Neptune transit which now brings harsh reality to our door and sombers hopes and dreams - ramped up by Pluto’s recent entry into Capricorn, sign of the USA’s natal Pluto:

http://limslimericks.blogspot.com/2009/02/american-dream-awakes.html

Obama’s ‘Dreams From My Father’ timely

Barack Obama’s book, ‘Dreams From My Father’ seems perfectly timely to me as an astrologer with the upcoming transit of Saturn to US natal Neptune in Aug-Sept 2009. Why?

Dreams = Neptune, Father =  Saturn!

And the fact that America’s natal Neptune is conjunct – in league with – working in tandem with – Obama’s natal Mars, which represents the energy-action-desire principles in a horoscope, seems karmic to me – and I’m merely a Saturnian astrologer.

So as karmic, testing Saturn nears US natal Neptune and our new president’s natal Mars during his first year of office, we idealize his actions and treat him as a rock star (sexy Mars + dreamboat Neptune) – yet Obama’s example this very day – Martin Luther King Day – is to work (Saturn) for the community or collective (Neptune.)

The president-elect has painted walls today and Michelle has helped our troops in foreign lands (and yes, we have so many of them) by joining in packing boxes to be sent to US soldiers.

For MLK Day 2009, the Obamas have ‘been’ their ideals rather than simply promoting high-flying dreams from the bully pulpit of the Oval Office. Obama is activating (Mars) the ideals of service (Neptune in hard-working, dedicated Virgo) of the American people, and it’s a good start for America!

Saturn’s realism meets Neptune’s dreams

Yes, you’re right.

It isn’t until August 27, 2009 that transiting Saturn exactly conjuncts America’s natal Neptune, planet of dreams, wishes, hopes, and ideals. The transit is within orb now,  however, with Saturn looming about only one degree away from lofty Neptune (US ‘Sibly’ chart.)

If you should read today’s post from Stars Over Washington concerning the subject, you’ll discover that I’ve included the three dates for the last time Saturn visited US natal Neptune in Virgo. That’s what astrologers do, you know – look at the last time and other times a cycle was in effect – in this case,  it’s the years 1979 to 1980 when the 18 North and 18 South Solar Eclipse Series manifested.

You may wish to snag more details here:

http://starsoverwashington.blogspot.com/2008/12/us-as-democracy-delusion.html

Lehman Bros chicks home to roost Oct 10 2008

As ‘George Washington’ and others are saying, Lehman Brothers’ derivatives are at the basis of much of the collapse going on here and abroad:

http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2008/10/banks-hoarding-cash-to-pay-derivatives.html

Earlier this evening I revisited the Solar Eclipse of Sept 11, 2007, the 9 New South Series (18Vir24) and got to thinking how difficult the Series had been for many people individually, and how its effects obviously brought along issues from past years including its initial manifestion on Jan 23, 1917 at 3AQ, the position of Inauguration 2009′s Jupiter.

Here are the dates and degrees of the other manifestations of 9 New South for reference’s sake from its 18.6 year cycle:

July 30, 1935 at 6Leo (conj US natal NN);

Aug 9, 1953 at 17Leo (Venus was at 18Leo on 9/11/01 triggering the Aug 11, 1999 Solar Ecl of Nostradamus);

Aug 20, 1971 at 27Leo (opposite US natal Moon);

Aug 31, 1989 at 8Vir, the position of Saturn on Dec 11, 2007 during the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Pluto (28Sag24); Jupiter/Pluto =  ’the plutocrats’ (Ebertin) who can’t get enough power and wealth under their greedy, over-achieving belts.

The 8Vir connection between 1989 and 2007 gives a possible midpoint picture…see what you think:

Sun/Moon = Saturn: addressing problems; weakened system; inhibitions.

(1989 was the year of the Great Conjunction/s of Saturn and Neptune, which began their approximately 36-year cycle for our era.)

Then the 9 New South Series manifested on Sept 11, 2007 as noted, and will next occur Sept 21, 2025 at 29Vir.

9 New South tends to bring to the surface long-term worries about loved ones, health concerns, and/or issues that concern paperwork or communications; responsibilities with paperwork or other forms of communications (stock tickers? accounting practices? oversight duties?) that come home to roost (Lehman’s chicks?), and I believe that Wall Street may have suffered some unfortunate circumstances ever since that have been brought into the open by this Eclipse…not caused by the Eclipse, but by people’s malicious and deceitful actions which can’t stay hidden forever. Peep eye!

Then on Feb 7, 2008 the ‘Unmasking Eclipse’ (10 North) came along at 17AQ45 where transiting Chiron and undermining, confused Neptune have so recently been – and 10N also has links with communications, news, and paperwork, with a tendency for inhibiting or frustrating events to occur.

Next is the Eclipse Series we’re now under, 10 South, from August 1, 2008 – the Series into which John McCain and the NYSE were born. (No! this is not a McCain’s-So-Old-How-Old-Is-He? joke)…one is a veritable institution with pretensions of grandeur, and the other one is the NYSE.

Okay, so it IS a McCain’s-So-Old joke hung upon a framework of late night TV’s Craig Ferguson’s comedy routine…

Speaking of which, did you see the Late Late Show tonight?

My favorites from the newly-minted American citizen: that AIG stands for Ain’t I Greedy…and even better: Craig played soundbites of McCain doing that odd sort of “henhh?” sound he barks juxtaposed with old footage of Burgess Meredith as the Penguin from Batman.

The scary part is that McCain and the Penguin character DO sound exactly alike…very disturbing, and apt to give penguins everywhere a bad rap. But that’s Politics – guilt by association.

~:~

Eclipse info: Brady’s ‘Predictive Astrology.’

“And the other is___” lifted from Craig Ferguson’s monologue because I like Craig Ferguson jokeries.

Astrology of the Obama-McCain townhall debate 10.7.08

If the three Sparkies who read this blog are interested, they may click to read a fresh post on this Tuesday’s Obama-McCain presidential townhall debate in Nashville, TN which is now published at Stars Over Washington:

http://starsoverwashington.blogspot.com/2008/10/obama-mccain-townhall-debate-10708.html

Got TV? Then you know you want to watch in fascination Tuesday evening as Midas rises in Nashville Oct 7, 2008, at 8:00 pm cdt, and February 2008′s Solar Eclipse (the ‘Unmasking Eclipse’) culminates at Midheaven for the whole world to see – perhaps a greedy Midas or two will be revealed and reviled!

Since the post doesn’t have the debate’s chart you can’t see that the 8th cusp is in Capricorn (2:23) but you will read mention of McCain’s current transit of Saturn-to-natal-Neptune. Most people and pundits are agreeing that America’s financial crisis isn’t helpful for the McCain candidacy, and Capricorn is ruled by old man Saturn who is on his transiting way to US natal Neptune in Aug-Sept, 2009. 

Asteroid Cupido, one of the significators of Corporatism, will be at 9Vir11 Tuesday night – conjunct George Bush’s natal Mars - so mention of McCain’s links with Bush are on people’s minds if not on Obama’s tongue. Perhaps audience questions will reflect this concern of more-of-Bush-policies with a McCain presidency. (A vote for McCain is a vote for Karl Rove and George Bush!)

Tuesday’s Moon is in Capricorn, too, so the people (Moon) are in a serious mood and are ambitious for improvements…Moon is in 8th house with wealth-spreading Jupiter 13Cap56 opposite US and Bush natal Suns, a time when resources dry up.

But as we saw in the last few weeks, Bush has a financial lifeline which we-the-people don’t have so he’ll weather the crisis dandily, thanks.

At Midheaven is a Fixed Star, Sualocin, of the constellation Delphinus, the Dolphin. This is a playful, helpful star which Bernadette Brady told me has an ‘artful dodger’ flavor. Celestially it resides next to the constellation Aquila the Eagle in the northern hemisphere, in an area of the heavens called The Waters.

Sualocin indicates one who is confident of mastery – a master in his own field.

The constellation Delphinus is centuries old and has many myths associated with it in various cultures: the Greeks saw it as the Sacred Fish; early Christians related it to Christ (the Fish), and in Arabia it has been called, the Riding Camel, ship of the desert. (Brady’s ‘Book of Fixed Stars.’)

Then there’s Tuesday’s chart-ruling planet of communications and speeches, Mercury, which is Rx in fair-minded Libra so we’ll have to see how the orations go as Midas rises and sadsack McCain, who says he’s most effective in townhall formats, attempts to limp over the finish line to fulfill his lifelong dream while inhibiting Saturn sits directly upon McCain’s planet of dreams, hopes, wishes, and ideals…Neptune.

However, since Astrology describes multiplicitous levels of existence, Saturn can, with some effort, bring accomplishment to long-term efforts as well as long-lasting rewards – if Mr. Accountability’s precepts have been observed and respected in the past.

So will McCain’s top-of-the-heap dreams of power and control come true at last? 

It may come down, after all is said, debated, and done, to wealthy stealthy Pluto, now unaspected and working unencumbered behind the scenes on behalf of the presidential candidate of his choice.

Because undemocratic as it is, whomever we-the-people vote for, we really vote for him.

~:~ an important note: please click Comments for this post to read astrologer Sasha’s details on the debate chart. My notes are actually based on an hour into the debate as it turns out…thanks, Sasha. I’m beginning to wonder what I’d do without ya – both you and Monica!! ;p

McCain birthday 2005

Here you’ll find a link to a YouTube video of stills from John McCain and George Bush happily sharing McCain birthday cake on Aug 29, 2005 while Neptune washed New Orleans’ Saturnian levees away and Katrina victims drowned:

http://starsoverwashington.blogspot.com/2008/08/mccains-hard-hearted-cake-gone-stale.html#links
 along with my grumps on the subject of a McCain White House tenure.

This is a priceless montage of what a future McCain White House will be reminding us of if the neocons get their Beltway again in November.

John McCain. Common gooder he ain’t.

Senate Speeches: Byrd vs McCain March 19, 2003

Perhaps you remember that the venerable Senator Robert Byrd (D-WVa) arose the afternoon of March 19, 2003 – hours before Bush-Cheney began to rain preemptive bombs upon Baghdad - and gave a stirring speech on the senate floor which condemned US military action against Iraq.

You may recall Byrd’s speech by one of the rhetorical questions he asked as he (and I along with him, perhaps you, too) wept for America:

One of his questions: “Why can this President not seem to see that America’s true power lies not in its will to intimidate, but in its ability to inspire?”

Now we notice that Byrd used, ‘not seem to see,’ a phrase which hints at his awareness of Bush’s willful disregard of anyone’s better advice - dubya was gunning for Saddam who had tried to get his father (the noive) and besides: a higher neocon/globalist plan admitted no other course of action.

Byrd was being….generous, imho. Bush did ‘see’ but he didn’t care; in fact he was counting on our courageous soldiers to be just that idealistic about liberating oppressed Iraqis whether the liberated lived through it or not. Naturally Bush must catapult our tendency toward idealism to a national fervor, for its been proven that the American people need their idealism fanned in order to march to war.

Well, it kinda worked with a bunch of tweaking and intell “sexing up” as the Brits say, while America’s might was commandeered for privatized use. I’m being generous.

Then what do you think happened on the senate floor when Senator Byrd sat down that ill-fated day?

A man rose up to defend the war plans of George W. Bush & Co. In fact, you could say he beat the war drums a few licks himself while labeling himself a Wilsonian and admitting his harbored feeling of admiration for his “hero and role model, Theodore Roosevelt.”

And that man, that Senator and water-carrier for the Bush-Cheney regime that day in 2003 was 2008 presidential candidate, John McCain, who knows a little something about war and its personal costs. Never mind that one thing he knows for sure is that, at his age, he’ll never have to serve ‘over there’ again.

His hero and role model, eh? Wonder if McCain has ever taken notice of the Teddy Roosevelt quote from my last article (just below)…the one about America’s secret, invisible government as explained by Teddy Roosevelt?

These last few years it’s become impossible for me to think of the holder of the Office of the Presidency as anything more than the tip of a submerged iceberg, a mouthpiece for announcing all manner of propaganda and decrees from on high. Mark it up and pass it on. Maybe it was always that way, but the job has been degraded in recent decades – also part of the plan of dissolving our nation.

Whichever candidate, if any, is sworn in on Jan 20, 2009 (with a meaningless pledge of Constitution-upholding) the transits to the US natal chart/s, its Progressions, etc, will still occur and her idealism will be twisted into a semblance of nationalism as needed. We will be told that the higher good demands our action even when we’ve given all we have to give and disagree with the fuzzy justifications for it all.

Mars retrograde by Progression in the US chart indicates a turning inward militarily and in other ways rather than an outreach, and the Full Moon by Progression in December is the culmination of efforts as well – we’ve reached the outer limits of our power and must retract.

And yes, our secret government may be seen in a fuller light bwo astrological terms by the upcoming Progressed Full Moon in December 2008, and later on we’ll experience the Saturn conjunct natal Neptune (ideals, visions, dreams, hopes) which is the “grim face of reality” transit. Because Saturn’s cycle is approximately 28 – 30 years in length, issues from 1979 – 1983 or so will be on the national menu along with Filet of Sole Soup (served cold and byoc…bring your own croutons.)

Old Man Saturn says, ‘deal with reality and truth - now” and we have little option to do otherwise.

History repeats (‘Saturn Rx’) as shown in astrological cycles but there are always additional factors to change the current brew which sometimes is an improvement. (That’s good because I suspect that Filet of Sole Soup isn’t very tasty, don’t you?)

Plus, we know that ‘Corporatism meets Capitalism’ is another manifestation of Saturn-Neptune although I do use the antithetical pair, like many other astrologers before me, to represent Communism itself when applicable.

And: state + corporations = fascism, as you know…a similar thing but adding the political dimension.

The pirating of America is almost complete but with much restructuring still to do (Pluto in Capricorn.)

So if you plan to vote for John McCain in November (the 2008 elections are still on, right?) please read both texts given in full by following the link I’m about to give you. The speeches are provided in full text and are fairly brief so it won’t take you more than two shakes of a lamb’s tail to peruse – and it’s an interesting limp down Memory Lane, if nothing else.

Certainly it’s good for McCain voters to remember March 19, 2003 and the senator’s arguments (must retrieve large amounts of WMD in Iraq! Now where’d I put those talking points?) against the more measured, thoughtful approach of one of our longest-serving Senators who may have lived his younger days with certain prejudices, but now seems to see that self-evolution and noble acting require serious self-contemplation before rushing off to an ill-advised war on a fool’s errand of a wild goose chase that a bully-pulpiter can’t be clear or honest about because if he were – no one would follow.

Full texts of both speeches:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19577.htm

Teddy Roosevelt on USA’s invisible government

No, it wasn’t power mad Dick Cheney who first formed America’s invisible or secret government.

Teddy Roosevelt made a statement concerning its existence on April 19, 1906 and I’ve published his remarks in an article which may be accessed at:

 
http://starsoverwashington.blogspot.com/2007/06/teddy-roosevelt-and-invisible.html#links

and a few of Roosevelt’s natal chart details are there as well (born Oct 27, 1858; NY.)

But are we our cousin’s keeper?

Because Teddy’s cousin, suave spy Kermit Roosevelt, is said to have facilitated the overthrow of Iran’s democratically elected government thus greasing the path for the Shah to be re-installed in Tehran by the CIA…seeds of our current troubles.

Wisdom says that ‘troubles are often self-created’ (and I added ‘voted Bush but now he’s hated’ at Lim’s Limericks – meow!) so the current oil dilemma may be as an good example of this sage wisdom as any I’d care to name.

So you may wish to read my March 2007 post which considers the Arab Oil Embargo chart with the transits of March 7, 2008 as part of the discussion:

http://starsoverwashington.blogspot.com/2008/03/mar-7-2008-transits-to-arab-oil-embargo.html

Yes, the nearly-at-Midheaven placement of Saturn in Libra and Neptune in Virgo in America’s natal chart (Sibly) has teased me for years and I know that as our nation’s MC progressed, its Saturn/Neptune midpoint (3Lib37 in both the Sco rising and Sibly charts) became part of a midpoint picture.

You could even play with the natal chart’s uncertain time – for there are several possible natal charts for America (see the Yorktown Surrender chart in Pages column with 9/11/01′s planets as transits to it; also I like the 2:21 pm chart for July 4, 1776 – the time behind Ben Franklin showing on the Independence Hall clock on the $100 bill, though some use 2:22 pm.)

The Scorpio rising chart has Saturn/Neptune at 11Sco21, with its 11:00 am hour selected astrologically by General George Washington, a Freemason with the necessary Sacred Geometry leanings. Today we call it ‘Astrology’ but in olden days it was considered to be part of a well-rounded education.

Therefore, one could use a slightly later time than 5:10 pm LMT on July 4, 1776 to plop Saturn/Neptune precisely at Midheaven. But whether that’s astrologically beneficial or not, we can be sure that government (Saturn) of the secret or invisible kind (Neptune) has been a background issue since America was created…Dick Cheney knows it, I know it, and the American people may as well know it, too.