April 2012 Mundane Astrology part 4
This month’s version of the astrology of world events and world leaders, known as Mundane Astrology, is taken from various internet and print media sources, with some interpretation and editorial comment provided by your friendly neighborhood astrological columnist. The commentary is sprinkled with bracketed planet names which are intended to link the archetypes to the events, people, and qualities of experience that are featured in the words and phrases preceding the named planet. It makes for awkward reading (and writing!) so be patient; you may have to re-read a line to find the flow and meaning of the sentence.
One of the astrological themes explored relates to the frictional and dynamic interaction between Pluto and Uranus across a 90-degree quartering of the heavens. These two planets are symbolically connected to the historic upheavals, social changes, culture wars, youth movements, activism and re-activism, fights for rights, race riots, sexual revolution, wars and war-resistance, economic paradigm shifts, and stunning technological breakthroughs that made the period from 1961 to 1974, “The Sixties”. See if you notice any themes from that era in the paragraphs below.
Another important astrological event, concurrent with the clashing of the titans, Uranus and Pluto, involves a very different, yet equally potent, trans-personal transformer, Neptune. Neptune’s power is amplified in its home sign of Pisces, where it will reside for over a dozen years. Neptune influences individuals and collectives at the emotional level, arousing feelings in response to crises of oppression and towards the rectification of social imbalances. Whether for religious reasons, as in the 
Protestant Reformation, or more secular moral and ethical concerns, such as the struggle by unions for workers’ rights, the durations of Neptune’s transits of Pisces have seen large masses of people joining forces for united efforts at reform in order to help typically helpless segments of the population who are suffering from chronic subjugation and exploitation. Again, as you are reading below, notice history repeating itself as humanity still struggles with old issues, responding en masse when an event strikes a chord and arouses sympathy, sadness and intensity, releasing tidal forces of group energy seeking realization of the human longing for a healthy, tolerant, and harmonious society.
To fully appreciate this article, please refer to last month’s installment, which includes in-depth descriptions of the planetary players ‘featured’ in the items that follow. Here is the link to my previous column-
http://astro-counselor.com/site/2012/03/march-2012-mundane-astrology-pt-3/
or look it up at my website- www.astro-counselor.com
Tragedy in Sanford
Like octopus tentacles, the tangled tale involving George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin is prying apart a long-established enclave of resentment and racism, polarizing the nation, and entangling innocents. Still writhing with livid intensity in every media outlet imaginable for well over a month after the shooting, the story and its implications continue to grip masses of people, celebrities, and government entities at the highest levels. George Zimmerman was patrolling as a volunteer neighborhood watchman on the night of the shooting and claims self-defense in the case. Treyvon Martin was carrying Skittles candy and a soda on his way back to a family member’s house after a trip to a local convenience store when the fatal encounter with Zimmerman occurred.
To illustrate the archetypes of the planets with this raw and tragic story feels risky; the intention is to show connections between the macrocosm to the microcosm, to promote understanding about the reflection of movements in the heavens with events here on Earth. In no way is there any intent to demean or trivialize any element, individual or situation related to the events that took place in Sanford, Florida on the night of February 26th.
Image and Interpretation
From recent news releases: Pictures [Neptune] of Treyvon Martin have been circulating widely, depicting a baby-faced youngster, smiling and chubby-cheeked, wearing a red T-shirt. That photo [Neptune] was released by his family and is a few years out-of-date. The day he was shot, Trayvon Martin was 17 years old, about 6 feet tall, and weighed 140 pounds.
The 28 year-old George Zimmerman is best known, image-wise, for the mugshot [Neptune] taken after being arrested in 2005 on the charge of assaulting an officer, which was subsequently dropped. In the police photo, Zimmerman looks unhappy, has an unshaven face, with a direct, unsmiling, piercing stare [Pluto] into the camera [Neptune]. He looks chunky, has an earring visible in one ear and wears the orange shirt of his jail-cell uniform. Contrasting greatly, a much more recent head shot [Neptune] of Zimmerman has emerged, showing a slimmer, happily grinning, well-dressed man in a suit and tie. The contrast is shockingly apparent [Uranus] and demonstrates how public opinion is molded, and the fires stoked, [Uranus/Pluto] by the use of certain images [Neptune].
Media experts have commented in the press that it is common for news agencies to play into the need of both journalists and 
the public for clear cut perpetrator/victim delineations [Saturn in Libra]. The preference for distinct polarities, good vs. evil, [Saturn in Libra] while simplistic, fuels media frenzy [Pluto/Uranus] and leads to iconic images that stick in people’s minds and create strong reactions in people, [Neptune in Pisces] stimulating them to quickly [Uranus] take sides [Saturn in Libra]. Emotions [Neptune/Pisces] and outrage [Uranus/Pluto] fuel the public hunger [Uranus/Pluto] for more information, and in circular fashion, journalists feed the populace the most dramatic and evocative [Uranus] pictures [Neptune], that therefore uphold the good-guy/bad-guy [Saturn in Libra] storyline, which in turn sells their stories and matches the way the masses want their news – simple, short, straight-forward [Saturn] and free of confusing [Neptune] contextual details. Mass upset ensues [Uranus/Pluto] with too few facts and details established [Saturn]. Sometimes for, sometimes against, justice is weighed in the “courts of public opinion”, [Saturn in Libra] while the complexities [Neptune in Pisces] of a situation can get lost in favor of black-and-white judgment [Saturn in Libra] calls.
A scandalous [Pluto] front cover on Time magazine’s June 27th, 1994, issue showed a doctored photo [Neptune] of O.J. Simpson, recently arrested after the murder of his wife and her boyfriend. His face on the cover was surreptitiously 
darkened [Neptune/Pluto], which led to accusations of racism [Pluto] by people who felt that Time was skewing public opinion [Neptune/Pluto] by depicting a ‘darker’ [Pluto] black man. In the only occasion in its history, Time Magazine retracted and recalled the cover, so by the time it hit the actual newsstands, only the subscribers had received the infamous [Pluto] issue.
Studies conducted at Stanford University have shown that in the Unites States, the more “black-looking” an African-American man charged with murdering a white victim is, the more likely it is that he will be sentenced to death [Saturn]. When determined by white and Asian-American undergraduates, using scores to rate facial features of black men tried for murder in Philadelphia, the research showed that those with “stereotypically” black features such as dark skin were sentenced to death more often than those men tried in similar cases, but displaying less stereotypical black features by a rate of 57.5% to 24.4%.
Just as trial jurors [Libra] tend to apply stereotypes of black features as a measure of criminality [Uranus/Pluto], meting out more severe punishments [Saturn], likewise, the juries of public opinion assign guilt [Saturn in Libra], often goaded by inflammatory [Uranus] photographs and videos [Neptune]. The question arises, what causes the phenomenon of mob mentality [Pluto], the electrified group-think [Uranus/Pluto] that picks up on one version of a story and an accompanying image [Neptune] that reflexively confirms a preexisting group-held attitude [Uranus]? A different image [Neptune] linked with an alternate take on the same story will trigger the sympathies [Neptune/Pisces] of the faction that holds judgments [Saturn] about the “other” group [Uranus/Pluto]. How vulnerable [Neptune in Pisces] are we, caught up the tides of emotions [Neptune in Pisces] swirling about in our fractious [Uranus in Aries] culture [Neptune], to excitement [Uranus] and sympathy [Neptune in Pisces] whipped up by reporters who, on the whole, are just as prone to snap judgments, caught up in quick decision-making [Uranus in Aries] while facing time constraints [Saturn] and competition [Aries/Libra]to get their stories “to press”.
Fueling the Furor
Private individuals [Uranus in Aries], not employed by institutional media machines [Pluto in Capricorn], (who are not bound [Saturn] by what used to pass for codes of journalistic integrity and professional conduct [Saturn]) nowadays can have major impact [Uranus/Pluto] in terms of “spreading the news” through social media networks [Uranus/Neptune]. Take the recent news report headline, complete with Mercury retrograde terminology, that appeared in USA Today: “Spike Lee settles for retweeting wrong address”. Besides having a brain-twister of a headline, the story itself describes the settlement and sincere apology [Saturn in Libra] offered by film [Neptune] director Spike Lee after he helped spread a Twitter posting that mistakenly gave an elderly [Saturn] Sanford, Fla. couples’ address as that of the home of the “vigilante shooter” [Uranus in Aries], George Zimmerman. Mr. Lee was thanked in a video [Neptune] by the couple, who had previously fled from their home after being swarmed by media correspondents [Neptune in Pisces] and then receiving hate mail [Pluto], including threats to their life [Pluto].
In the U.S. Congress, Illinois Representative Bobby Rush [Uranus in Aries] spoke to a morning session about racial profiling [Pluto] and the shooting of Trayvon Martin. While at the podium, he removed his suit jacket [Saturn in Libra] and pulled up the hoodie on the gray sweatshirt he was wearing underneath, declaring “Just because someone wears a hoodie, does not make them a hoodlum.” Representative Rush also commented on recent marches [Uranus/Pluto] where demonstrators [Uranus] wore hooded sweaters “…to make a statement about hoodies, [and] about the real hoodlums in this nation [Pluto in Capricorn], particularly those who tread on our laws [Saturn in Libra], wearing official, or quasi-official [Saturn] 
clothes…”. Representative Greg Harper, a Republican from Mississippi who was presiding [Saturn] over the House floor, began to gavel down Rush [Saturn in Libra], finally asking a floor clerk to escort the Illinois congressman out of the chamber. Representative Bobby Rush was an activist for civil rights [Uranus] in the 1960′s and is a former member of the Black Panthers [Uranus/Pluto].
In a recent article posted by a CNN reporter, the point is made that the case of the shooting by George Zimmerman of Treyvon Martin has “…sparked [Uranus in Aries] a national controversy [Uranus/Pluto]… [and]…stoked extremists’ [Uranus/Pluto] views.” (Zimmerman is free because of the interpretation by the authorities [Saturn] of a law [Libra] in Florida stating, “A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked …has no duty to retreat…and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary.”) According to the report, The New Black Panther Party [Uranus/Pluto] has offered a $10,000 reward for the “capture” of George Zimmerman. The news piece also mentions that a visitor to a web-site for a white supremacy group [Uranus/Pluto] left a message describing Martin as a “…punk negroe who messed with the wrong guy.”
Across the country in California, comes the news of an historic first-time-ever [Uranus in Aries] admission by the Los Angeles Police Department [Saturn in Libra] that one of its officers has been “selectively policing” [Pluto] Latinos. The racial profiling [Pluto] accusations have been coming at the LAPD by the hundreds each year, but this is the first instance [Aries] where an internal investigation [Pluto] resulted in a recommendation that an officer be terminated [Saturn]. Police Chief Charlie Beck [Saturn] reviewed evidence against Patrick Smith, a 15-year veteran who worked as a motorcycle cop in the West Traffic Division. Smith targeted Latinos and also misidentified [Neptune] their ethnicity in many of his reports to allegedly conceal [Neptune] his biased policing practices [Pluto]. Back in November of 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice [Saturn in Libra] warned LAPD officials [Saturn] that their racial profiling [Pluto] procedures were inadequate. John Mack, one of the members of the department’s civilian oversight board [Uranus], hailed the case as “a giant step forward” [Uranus in Aries] after spending years trying to bring reforms [Uranus] to a police department [Saturn] that has a reputation for bias and abuse of power [Pluto]. Notably, on April 29, 1992, Los Angeles Police officers were acquitted in the police brutality case [Saturn/Pluto] of Rodney King, the video [Neptune] of which sparked outrage and destructive, fatal riots and battles with police, the National Guard, the Army and Marines [Saturn, Uranus and Pluto] in Los Angeles and other cities.
Perhaps, with the news of the charges against Officer Smith, we can hope that monolithic civic institutions [Saturn] and the behavior of those in positions of seemingly inviolable authority and power [Pluto in Capricorn] can be challenged [Uranus in Aries] and made to serve “we the people” [Uranus] after all.
Pay attention to the event and figures that appear in the news and see if you can connect the links to the planets and signs. Please send your questions and comments to my website at www.astro-counselor.com and look for the “musings” section.
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