by Matt Savinar

Editor’s Note: an audio/video version of this video is available on YouTube. -Matt

In medical astrology Virgo rules the intestines which separate what stays with the body for nutritive purposes from what must be discarded as waste. This is the sign most accustomed to dealing with pathogen loaded waste, be it the type our bodies produce or the sort pumped into the environment by Fortune 500 corporations. Astrologer Stella Hyde says Virgos’ obsession with being “au naturel” and precision calibrated intelligence means they make for great homeopaths and nano-technologists while people with their Moons (unconscious emotional needs) in Sagittarius (the Super Crusader) need to feel as though they’re on a mission of great spiritual significance to feel themselves. (Source) Both Virgo and Sagittarius are considered intellectual signs so this is often a profoundly intelligent Sun/Moon combo. To illustrate: using its debut as its date of birth, the cult 1980s children’s series Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future is a Virgo Sun, Sagittarius Moon. (Chart) Don’t let the cartoonish metal costumes fool you. This was one of the few shows that sought to smarten kids up rather than dumb them down. As one reviewer for IGN put it, “Captain Power proved an immeasurably intense series. There was a shockingly mature story underneath . . . it dealt with the darker side of humanity while openly dealing with death, compassion and redemption of mankind in a profound way.” (Source)

Set in a post-apocalyptic world ruled by a Dick Cheney look-a-like known as “Lord Dread”, the Captain Power series follows a small team of service minded (Virgo) guerrilla fighters (Sagittarius) as they fight to stop the “digitalization” of surviving humans into the global “OverMind”, an advanced supercomputer prison that is one part Monsanto, one part Facebook. The guerrilla fighters are equipped with high tech “power suits” that give them the near superhuman abilities necessary to do battle with Dread’s fleet of flying “Bio-Dreads”, nano-technology based (Virgo) super-soldiers (Sagittarius) that bear more than a passing resemblance to today’s predator drones. Medical supplies are in short supply and the guerrilla fighters are often found delivering or rounding up medicines for people traumatized by the ravages of ecological ruin and political collapse. Sadly, significant numbers of humans have pledged their allegiance to Lord Dread, becoming traitors to both their own species and the planet itself. Suffice it to say, many of the issues the show approached as speculative fiction back in 1987 are now the most pressing matters of our time.

The show was ahead of its time in other ways too. Lord Dread’s cybernetic machine empire was clearly the inspiration for “the Borg”, the infamous race of nano-technology (Virgo) super-fanatics (Sagittarius) that didn’t make their debut on Star Trek: The Next Generation until three years later. In one episode, entitled “Flame Street”, Captain Power contracts with a team of underground computer hackers for access to the “mental matrix”, a direct neural link to an artificial reality known as the “cyber-web”. Once inside the “mental matrix”, Power does battle with Lord Dread who attempts to manipulate his perception of what’s real versus what’s imaginary. Watching that episode on YouTube it’s hard not to notice just how much it looks, sounds, and feels like the plot to The Matrix, the blockbuster film franchise that wouldn’t hit movie theaters for another twelve years:

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Captain Power was highly original not just in terms of its on air plot-lines but also in terms of how it was filmed and produced. The show was the first television series to make regular use of CGI graphics and the first to be produced via the internet. According to a recent documentary on the series, the show’s writers were based in Los Angeles and would “modem over” their scripts to the cast and crew who were filming the show in Toronto. They would then modem back photos, suggestions, and revisions. This was all done via 56k connections — primitive by today’s standards but cutting edge technology at a time when 99% of the population hadn’t even heard of the internet let alone ever been on it.

The show was one of the first children’s shows to feature a legitimately strong female character in the form of Jennifer Chase, a pilot and tactical systems experts portrayed by actress Jessica Steen. More than a few Virgo/Sagittarians are raised in restrictive, oppressive religious or social environments. This is because Virgo’s shadow is often expressed as an obsession with sexual or moral purity while the Sagittarian shadow is expressed as religious fanaticism and dogmatic fundamentalism. The Chase character, for instance, grew up as a member of the “Dread Youth”, a fanatical political group for children modeled on the Hitler Youth of the 1930s and 40s only to escape its clutches as a young adult.

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Jessica Steen as Jennifer Chase in “Captain Power”

That a Virgo/Sagittarius like the Captain Power series would be so far ahead of its time in both plot-lines and production methods makes sense if you understand the psychological operandi of this paring. Virgo is ruled by Mercury, the planet of the lower mind, while Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, the planet of the higher mind. As astrologer Sue Tompkins explains in her book Aspects, when the two minds are working together the result is somebody adept at thinking, writing, or communicating about the future:

Since Mercury (Virgo) and Jupiter (Sagittarius) can be associated with short and long distance travel physically as well as mentally, this pairing can be associated with a life filled with plenty of travel. Physical travel as well as educational travel is a very good way to use these contacts. Surely such exploration is the purpose of this combination. Mercury (Virgo) and Jupiter (Sagittarius) is a good mix for the writer and can often be found in those whose work is read well into the future.

. . . this is a useful combination for teachers, preachers, politicians, and philosophers. Anyone with Big Ideas and anyone who might talk or think about the future and, in particular, about an improved future. The concern with the future can point to an interest in youth or work with youth. The combination may also be found in people who enjoy or write science fiction — a genre that usually involves itself with future worlds far from their own. (Source)

The Captain Power series checks out on all points: the show was for designed for kids and used science fiction to communicate very “Big Ideas” about how to improve the future. Almost thirty years after it went off the air the show is still talked about among science fiction aficionados, both viewers who remember being riveted by it at home and Hollywood production staff who remember being impressed by its graphics, design, and special effects. Virgo/Sagittarians are often excellent teachers and many of the crew who worked on the show would go on to teach the methods they pioneered on the series to people throughout the entertainment world.

Like a good teacher, Captain Power may also have planted seeds within the minds of at least some of the young people who grew up watching it. The series was very popular among children, many of whom are now in their mid-to-late thirties and early forties. This is the generation already at the forefront of dealing with the consequences of a society turning its life support systems over to an armada of giant, artificially intelligent computer systems owned by defense contractors, pharmaceutical corporations, Wall Street banks, and other entities whose intentions in the real world are every bit as nefarious as Lord Dread’s were in the imaginary one. “We can’t just sit back and wait for things to get better” Power insists when it’s suggested that he and his team simply hide out from the forces of evil:

According to astrologers Suzi and Charles Harvey, two metaphoric images for the Virgo/Sagittarius pairing are, “A bespectacled librarian locks the door at closing time and transforms into Superwoman” and “An anthropology class goes on a field trip”. (Source) Both images are excellent approximations of the Captain Power series. The Jennifer Chase character, for instance, was something of a computer technician-librarian type until she donned her power suit at which point she transformed into a laser-pistol wielding, homeopathic (Virgo) rough rider (Sagittarius) ready to take on all comers. To keep costs down the production staff took a year long field trip from Los Angeles to Toronto. Once there, they created a complex anthropological back-story for a futuristic world filled with enormous amounts of pain and despair but also some pangs of hope, a world uncannily similar to the one we all now occupy.

About the Author: Matthew David Savinar is a California licensed attorney (State Bar #228957), voluntarily inactive as of June 2013. He can be reached for questions, comments, or astrological consults via Twitter, YouTube, Spreaker, Soundcloud, or his contact page.

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