The following is an 450 word excerpt from “Ladies of the Zodiac, It’s Showtime!”, a 4,500 word article on the astrology of the feminine asteroids that is one of the four features in our premier issue. It was written by Willow of Willow’s Web Astrology, republished with permission. -Matt
Pallas Athene: The Female Warrior Asteroid
The asteroid Pallas Athene is the female warrior, and this symbol indicates something for which we are willing to fight throughout our lives. It indi-cates how we fight — but in a less overt and obvious way than the male warrior symbol, Mars. This symbol is about the way the feminine fights, with its very own strategies, skills, and cunning. Pallas athene indicates battles that go on in the subtler realms and battles that involve strategy. This is also a symbol related to the battle for equality and justice between the sexes.
Pallas Athene was a woman who, according to the mythology, was born from the forehead of her father zeus wearing a full set of armor. There could be no doubt that she was a born warrior, and her skills in strategy, crafts, and combat were so impressive that she was accepted into the fold by the male warriors.
There was just one hitch: in order to be accepted as an equal, Pallas athene had to give up her sexuality and remain celibate, something that was not required of the male warriors.
The mythology of Pallas athene involves an element of female sexuality suppressed in order to be accepted amongst the men. There is a theme of women having their sexuality controlled by the established order and of women having to remain celibate in order not to threaten that established order.
The suppression of female sexuality in professions like military or police work is a Pallas athene theme. Rape against women in the military, a widespread problem, is another. According to an April 2014 lawsuit filed by service Women’s action network and Vietnam Veterans of America against the Veterans’ Administration, nearly 1 in 3 female U.S. soldiers is raped during her service. (Source) There are currently 200,000 active duty women in the U.S. military so that would mean nearly 66,000 of them have been raped during their service. A 1976 U.S. army Manual advised female soldiers that they should guard against being raped by “wearing comfortable clothing and shoes adaptable to running.” (Source) According to a recent Alternet article, “Inside the Military rape Cult”, “in 2010, the DoD found that 19,000 service members were sexually assaulted. (Source) Of those a paltry 3,100, or 13.5 percent, were reported, and of those only 17 percent were prosecuted.” (Source) The overwhelming majority of the 19,000 service members sexually assaulted were junior enlisted women under the age of 25. In 2012 the Pentagon estimated the number had risen from 19,000 to 26,000. (Source) Shockingly, female soldiers are far more likely to be raped by fellow service members than they are to be killed in combat by enemy fire. According to a 2012 Huffington Post analysis of data provided by the Pentagon, “a servicewoman was nearly 180 times more likely to have become a victim of military sexual assault in the past year than to have died while deployed during the last 11 years of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.” (Source)
Female soldiers who do come forward with accusations of rape are often harassed by male soldiers and intimidated by their higher-ups, discouraging the reporting of these crimes.
Themes of sexual violence against women as well as the suppression and control of female sexuality run through much of the Greek and roman mythology, reflecting the violent, patriarchal societies from which the stories came.
From Persephone being forcefully dragged off to the underworld by Pluto to Pallas athene having to take a vow of celibacy in order to do her work, many of the feminine bodies are connected to mythological themes of control, suppression, violence, and abuse, often along sexual lines.
Editor’s Note: this is a brief excerpt from Mike Lutin’s two-part article “The Capricorn Conspiracy, Chapter 2: The Fascist Manifesto” appearing in first issue of Hexagon, reprinted with permission. The first chapter was originally published in Vanity Fair magazine and can be read here. Mike can be reached via his website. -Matt
PHASE 1
If I were the sort of person who had tirelessly devoted my time and effort to organizing my life in such a way that I was able to convince myself I was finally secure, I would naturally take steps to maintain that condition at all costs.
ANYBODY would, wouldn’t they?
Basing my efforts on such a premise, according to some people preposterous and fallacious, could have been a great mistake, but for the moment, let’s accept the fact that I am actually quite sane. What would I do, how would I best go about holding on to control of that security?
Naturally I would have already arranged my life in business and personal life in an orderly way, so that my resources would assure me a certain life style. I would know generally what to expect in my personal relationships. The maintenance of order would be my prime directive, and rightly so. Entropy, chaos and unforeseen, unreasonable shifts and changes would have to be factored in to life’s equation.We all have to expect some level of chaos in life. Machines run down, people catch colds, things come up. Isn’t that what adds spice to life? My love of order, however–ducks in a row, and rainy day awareness would eventually bring me to that blissful state of existing in a universe I had created around me of luxurious security.
If, however, I began to suspect that there might be a challenge to my preferred existence, I could decide to open up to the prospect of change, and look forward to a new adventure, one not of my own making.
I would need to learn how to respond to the appearance of suddenly unknown factors. I would be challenged to apply ingenuity, originality, and a level of spontaneous genius to be able to shift my focus and attitude toward an existence I had spend years creating.
Could be fun, refreshing. New experiences, a whole new, exciting paradigm. New game.
New rules.
New opportunities.
New people.
What a rush.
Many folks would think so.
Suppose, however, I didn’t see it that way. Suppose such a prospect threatened and frightened me. Suppose I wanted to keep things just the way they were. How then could I arrange my life in relation to work, family, assets, everything–so that the rhythms, patterns and status I had developed could continue uninterrupted? Suppose that goal began to consume me.
What would happen?
How would I go about it?
How could I gain complete control?
(c) copyright Michael Lutin. This material may not be copied, distributed, or sold in any form in existence now or in perpetuity without the permission in writing of the author or his representatives. All Rights Reserved.
This is a 13 minute excerpt from an interview I did with Jen Julius on KOWS 107.3 FM out of Occidental, California on the new print astrology magazine I’ve started. Interested in pledging to our Kickstarter campaign? You can do so here.
Previews of the first issue are availabe at our Kickstarter page. I’ve also posted some here and here.
Scorpio is the sign of Shaman and the Spy, the Hitman and the Detective, the Investment Banker and the Investigative Journalist, the Criminal Deviant and the Depth Psychologist, the Brain Surgeon and the Research Scientist, the Covert Op and the Deep Cover Cop. Co-ruled by Mars (the Lord of War) and Pluto (the Lord of the Underworld), Scorpio is the sign least likely to fear death. Astrologer Frances Sakoian warns, “In battle they will give no quarter and expect none. If one takes up cudgels against a Scorpio, he should be well fortified.” (Source) To illustrate: using its premier date as its date of birth, the original Terminator film has its Sun, Pluto, Mercury, and Saturn all in Scorpio. (Chart) The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the “T-800” model Terminator — a heavily fortified contract killing machine from the future who gives no quarter and whose cybernetic brain possesses no fear of death. Opposite him is actress Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, a young woman who transforms herself from a wilting violet afraid of her own shadow into a ferociously self-sufficient badass who defeats the heartless killer sent to eliminate her and her unborn child. Both the T-800 and the Sarah Connor characters are textbook Scorpios albeit from opposite ends of the spectrum: one’s been programmed to serve the ice cold forces of technological centralization by inflicting death, the other’s been called to disrupt them by preserving life. Both are totally implacable in the pursuit of their objective(s).
According to astrologer Judy Hall, people with their Sun (conscious identity) in this intensely secretive sign make for great undertakers and insurance agents. (Source) They also do well in any career that requires infiltration, such as working for the internal affairs department of a Fortune 500 corporation. Schwarzenegger’s Scorpionic alter-ego the T-800 is not a literal undertaker or corporate insurance agent but its mission to infiltrate (Scorpio) the past and assassinate (Scorpio) Sarah Connor is designed to insure (Scorpio) that things goes as planned for a massive defense contractor known as the Cyberdyne Corporation. Scorpio, ruled by Pluto, is also considered the sign having dominion over nuclear energy. (Source) Not coincidentally, the T-800 is powered by an internal nuclear reactor that sits in its solar plexus region behind heavy armor. Human Scorpios are powered by similarly primeval, if intensely guarded, sources of energy.
While a person’s Sun sign tells us what they come to be consciously identified with, it’s their Moon sign that tells us what the needs of their emotional body are. If the Sun is symbolic of the head, it’s the Moon that’s symbolic of the heart. A person’s Moon sign will also tell us a lot about the home environments they feel most comfortable in. Astrologer Raven Kaldera associates the Scorpio Moon with the myth of Hecate, the Greek goddess of necromancy who feels more at home among the dead than she does the living:
Hecate may be a lunar goddess, but she is also an underworld goddess, passing back and forth between the depths and the night fields like a creature of caves who only comes out after dark.
The places Hecate haunted most frequently were crossroads, which symbolize choice, or places where crimes of passion had been committed, or criminals executed.
Hecate, the intense and mysterious witch-goddess, rules the night and cannot be cast as a creature of the light . . . (Source)
The 1981 cult film Escape from New York, released (born) July 10th, 1981, has its Moon in Scorpio. (Chart) The film is a fictional work but its intensely subterranean atmosphere is an accurate projection of the environments a Scorpio Moon (Hecate Moon) tends to find themselves in. In it actor Kurt Russel portrays “Snake Plissken”, a former special operations soldier who must journey into the psychotic underworld of the American police state. Once there he must retrieve state (family) secrets so horrific they remain unspeakable until the film’s final moments. Like the dark parts of the human psyche that Hecate frequents, all roads into and out of this underworld are mined with explosives. Like Hecate herself, Russel’s character is considered a criminal, is very much a creature of the night, and is widely assumed to be dead. He doesn’t fly around on a silent broomstick like the witches associated with Hecate but he does arrive in the underworld by way of a silent glider, which can be thought of as the modern day equivalent of a witch’s broom:
In true Scorpio Moon fashion, Russel’s character alternates between “silent introversion and snarling rage”, to quote Kaldera’s description of this lunar placement’s emotional tendencies. In one scene an associate of Russel’s character is abducted by a gang of night raiders who burst through the floor of a burnt out cafe, a good metaphor for the swarms of free floating fears and other inconvenient eruptions from deeper parts of the unconscious that some astrologers associate with the Scorpio Moon.
Combine a Scorpio Sun’s conscious orientation to intensity with a Scorpio Moon’s natural born instincts for the crossroads of life and the result is a Sun/Moon pairing that’s both fascinating and feared. Jefferson Anderson says this is the Sun/Moon pairing of the “Extremist” who takes nothing at face value. (Source) Stella Hyde says that its most extreme it makes for a great professional assassin, one who “spurns the bread-and-butter gangland contracts for the edgy intrigue, secrecy and destabilizing political fallout that comes with top-class, globally significant, grassy-knoll style eliminations”. (Source) To illustrate: using its establishment date as its date of birth, the U.S. government’s Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) is a Scorpio/Scorpio. (Chart). According to the Board’s Wikipedia page, it was established in 1992 “following the public outcry about the event after the release of Oliver Stone’s film JFK, which suggested a conspiracy within state institutions to murder the President”. (Source) At the time there was a surge in people who were unwilling to take anything at face value when it came to the extremist, globally significant, grassy-knoll style elimination of JFK.
Actress Famke Janssen is a double Scorpio whose big breakthrough came in the 1995 film Goldeneye in which she portrayed “Xenia Onatopp”, a ruthlessly intelligent James Bond super-villainess. (Chart) Janssen’s Scorpionic alter-ego Onatopp was, in effect, a female version of Dracula, the terrifying if iconic vampire character penned by Bram Stoker, himself a double Scorpio. (Chart)
Onatopp was a villain but not one without some redeeming qualities, at least in terms of what she represents in the world of film. The Bond series is infamous for depicting women as little more than helpless waifs who dispense sexual favors like pez. Onatopp was anything but helpless and, like a true Plutonian, she wasn’t about to be caught dead dispensing thrills on anybody’s terms other than her own. Janssen later came to fame for her portrayal of Jean Gray, a member of the X-Men comic franchise, who starts of as the weakest member of the organization only to die and be reborn as the strongest. For a double Scorpio like Janssen, both the Onatopp and Gray characters were pitch perfect although obviously the two were on opposite sides of the equation in regards to the nobility of their intentions.
Something similar can be said of 17th century poet Juana Ines De La Cruz, a double Scorpio, who according to astrologer Mystic Medusa, was “as widely condemned in her day as she was adored. Some say De La Cruz was THE most important poet of her time, influencing Walt Whitman, Emily Dickensen and so forth. She even wove theme of Hermetic magic into some of her poems. So Scorpio”. (Source) De la Cruz was a nun so her personal and private lives were likely reasonably mundane. However, given the cultural norms of the 17th century, her poetry and scholarly accomplishments certainly did mark her as an extreme outlier — something that, as a double Scorpio, she was likely quite proud of.
Double Scorpio: Juana Ines De La Cruz
Scorpio is ruled by Pluto, the planet considered to have dominion over nuclear energy. When both of a person’s luminaries are Pluto-ruled the result is a person that is, in effect, a one (wo)man chain reaction of primordial traits. Linda Goodman observes:
. . . can accomplish many marvels together, considering the immense force resulting from their latent energies — anything from causing a savings account to grow large enough to purchase their dream home to saving baby seals from being butchered before their mothers’ eyes.
. . . or to prevent the cataclysm predicted for the West Coast, which may be approaching within the next decade but which can be stopped. One way that’s been suggested to halt the Earth tremors is the cessation of nuclear and hydrogen testing beneath the ground.
. . . Remember that your ruling planet, Pluto, contains all the power you need to build happiness into a tower, or to destroy happiness with the energy force of a nuclear blast. (Source)
To illustrate: General Curtis Lemay is a double Scorpio. (Chart) He’s best known for masterminding the firebombing of Tokyo’s civilian population during World War II — something which he admitted would have gotten him prosecuted for crimes against humanity had Japan won the war. He later advocated fighting a “winnable” nuclear war, was the running mate of pro-segregationist George Wallace in the 1968 presidential election, and many suspect he may have played a role in the assassination of JFK. He also happens to haven been the model for the psychotic if buffoonish General portrayed by George C. Scott in Stanley Kubrick’s legendary 1964 dark comedy Dr. Strangelove: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb:
Lemay was, by any reasonable assessment, a truly horrible person. He did, however, manage to do one thing right and that one thing was as Scorpionic as it gets. According to Eric Schlosser’s book Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety, it was Lemay who as the first head of Strategic Air Command insisted upon the implementation of extremely stringent safety measures when it came to the handling of nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons were so new at the time that Lemay was one of only a handful of men on the planet who understood just how dangerous they were. The measures he implemented have since prevented a number of accidental nuclear holocausts from occurring — exactly what’s depicted in Dr. Strangelove. Stunningly, Schlosser makes a convincing case that Lemay’s efforts have likely done more to prevent nuclear war than all of Greenpeace combined. The man was a mean-spirited fascist, a virulent racist, and a war criminal through and through but within the Pluto ruled underworld even the Devil has something redeeming to offer the world.
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 at his contact page.
The premier issue of Hexagon, now shipping:
Pictured Above: Matt Savinar, Novalee Truesdell, and Carrie Davoli on the premier issue of Hexagon
The combination of seashore dwelling crab (Cancer Sun) and the ocean going fish (Pisces Moon) make for a Sun/Moon pairing uniquely attuned to both the actual ocean and the oceanic realms of emotion. In his book Heaven Knows What astrologer Grant Lewi describes this pairing in distinctly sea-faring terms:
You have a sailboat personality; you track with the wind and tide, shift your ballast, alter the top rigging, and keep in cahoots with the weather conditions as you find them. This makes for progress whether on the high seas or on the sea of life.(Source)
In their 1994 book Sun Sign Moon Sign, astrologers Suzi and Charles Harvey offer a similarly sea-faring description of this pairing, explaining that it’s at its best when working with imagery involving the oceans:
You are remarkably intuitive . . . Acutely receptive to hidden messages, you easily act as a barometer of the environment.
. . . your subtle powers of observation and mimicry could pay off in some way. By stealth, intuition and shrewd manoeuvre, you usually end up exactly where you want to be.
A simple life amidst rural beauty where you can commute with nature suits you best. Or better yet, right near the ocean where the sparkling scintillation of light would inspire your artistic side.(Source)
To illustrate: using its launch date as its date of birth, NASA’s legendary 1978 oceanographic space satellite known as SeaSat One is a Cancer Sun, Pisces Moon. (Chart) True to its Cancer/Pisces pedigree, SeaSat was a “remarkable barometer of the environment” whose “subtle powers of observation” and “receptivity to hidden messages” totally revolutionized how we study the oceans.
SeaSat spacecraft artist rendering with callouts.
If you haven’t heard of SeaSat that’s okay as even the most remarkably astonishing of Cancer/Pisces individuals can easily slip into the background. In short, pretty much everything we’ve learned about the oceans during the last thirty plus years stems from SeaSat. A NASA article celebrating the satellite’s 25th anniversary explained:
“SeaSat served to vault Earth science to where it is today”, said Dr. Frank Carsey, JPL research scientist. “It collected more information about the oceans in 100 days than had been acquired in the previous 100 years of shipboard research . . . it was astonishing.”(Source)
An AllBusiness.com article entitled “SeaSat’s Legacy” explained that, “in a manner of speaking, SeaSat sired a series of satellites that continue today.” (Source) Here, for instance, is an image of Hawaii captured by EnviSat using the remote sensing technologies first demonstrated by SeaSat. The white dots are ocean waves not clouds:
Image of Hawaii taken by EnviSat with technologies pioneered by SeaSat. Courtesy of European Space Agency
Take a look at this much higher resolution version of the above image for a truly wonderful visual treat. (Make sure to right click on the “magnify” icon to get the full view.) Here’s another image taken by EnviSat employing the technologies first used in space on board SeaSat. This one is of the Canary Islands, the green plumes are part of an active underwater volcano according to the ESA Multimedia page.
EnviSat image of the Canary Islands (Photo: European Space Agency)
What’s amazing about SeaSat’s sensing technologies is that, technically speaking, SeaSat was blind. It did not have an on board optical camera nor did it rely on the availability of light to capture images. Instead, it remotely detected what was going on deep beneath the ocean’s surface by using the echoes of radar waves to sense through the water, similar to what a medical intuitive does when they detect what is going on with your body by seeing into and through it. A 1996 NY Times article describes SeaSat as being akin more to a space-age psychic antenna than simply a camera lofted to high-altitude:
. . . SeaSat was [essentially turned] into a vast antenna stretching over dozens of miles of space. Rather than treating the satellite as an ordinary camera that takes a single snapshot, the new technique, in effect, keeps the shutter open as the satellite moves over wide regions of space. The step greatly increases the number of incoming radar echoes thus sharply enhancing the resolution . . .(Source)
That doesn’t make it “psychic” in a literal sense but SeaSat’s astonishing imaging capabilities can certainly be analogized to a technological version of extrasensory perception. Keep in mind it did much more more than absorb and send back images. From 500 miles above the earth it was also able to remotely sense wave heights, wind speeds and direction, sea temperatures, coastal conditions, and even to discern what was going on hundreds of feet beneath the water’s surface. NASA’s original SeaSat launch press release states, “the spacecraft has all-weather capability and can see as well at night as during the day”. (Source)
Cancer Sun, Pisces Moon has an “oceangoing personality” even when traveling 500 miles above the earth. (SeaSat Images courtesy NASA/JPL)
Helen Keller is also a Cancer Sun, Pisces Moon. (Chart) Like SeaSat, she was technically blind and deaf yet she too could see (sense) as well at night as during the day. Keller didn’t posses ESP or remote sensing technologies nor was she known to be psychic. However, she adapted to her limitations in a manner so phenomenally intuitive that it might have seemed downright magical. According to her Wikipedia entry:
. . . Keller was very in touch with the outside world. She was able to enjoy music by feeling the beat and she was able to have a strong connection with animals through touch. She was delayed at picking up language, but that did not stop her from having a voice.(Source)
Given this pairing’s attunement to the watery realms of emotions maybe it’s no surprise that the first word Keller was able to communicate was “water”. (Source) The moment Keller was able to spell out “water” was famously dramatized in the 1962 movie Miracle Worker:
According to astrologers Suzi and Charles Harvey, a metaphoric image for the Cancer/Pisces individual is, “An artist teaches recuperating patients to paint images of their dreams in soft water colors.” (Source) That’s an uncannily accurate metaphor for SeaSat. It’s obviously not a literal artist who teaches recuperating patients to paint with water colors but its technologies have enabled scientists to produce incredibly moving images of the Earth’s oceans. Should the patient – in this case humanity – ever commit to recuperating the oceanic realms that comprise 70% of our planet’s surface then SeaSat’s legacy will play a role similar to that of the artist in the Harveys’ image. Thirty five years after it was launched, climatologists and oceanographers are still combing through the wealth of information it generated for information on how we might go about helping the oceans recuperate from the devastation that’s been wrought upon them. (Source)
(Image Source: NASA, NTRS)
The Harveys’ second metaphoric image for the Cancer/Pisces individual is, “A lone sailboat offshore . . .” (Source) Take a look at NASA’s original drawing of SeaSat, pictured above, as it matches up nearly literally to the Harveys’ metaphoric image for this pairing.
Cancer Sun, Pisces Moon: Encounters with the Grim Reaper, Monsters in the Closet, and Ancestral Secrets
If SeaSat was so effective and managed to sire so many subsequent satellites then why did it operate for less than four months? That’s where things get murky. The official story is that SeaSat abruptly stopped operating on October 9th, 1978 due to a massive electrical short circuit. (Source) Many, however, believe the satellite’s power was ordered cut off when it begun detecting things it was absolutely not supposed to detect.
One of SeaSat’s first images. It also detected classified ICBM armed submarines and experimental stealth aircraft. (Photo: NASA/JPL)
What we do know is that SeaSat detected the undersea waves generated by nuclear armed submarines as well as the tell-tale shadows of experimental stealth aircraft which at the time were still an unacknowledged “black project” being run out of Area 51. According to Peter Westwick, author of Into the Black: JPL and the American Space Program, officials back at the Pentagon darn near went ballistic when they learned what SeaSat’s unexpected powers of discernment had revealed. (Source)
Recall that one of the Cancer/Pisces individual’s strengths is “the ability to detect the hidden”. This is also one of its greatest liabilities. What happens, for instance, when a person as tuned to other realms as a Cancer/Pisces native detects or encounters something more intense then their sensitivities are able to handle? What happens, for example, if they detect or encounter the Grim Reaper?
It’s an apt question to ponder as the Grim Reaper is exactly what SeaSat inadvertently came in contact with. On a metaphoric level, submarines carrying nuclear ICBMs are a fitting stand in for the “bringer of death”. On a more literal level, the experimental stealth aircraft detected by SeaSat were flown by the 4450th Tactical Group, a highly classified test squadron known as “the Grim Reapers.” (Source) Take a look at the squadron’s flight patch to see the true nature of what SeaSat managed to detect:
Speaking of encounters with the occult, astrologer Linda Goodman warns the Cancer/Pisces combination as follows:
It’s best that this combination stays a healthy distance away from experimentation in black magic, hypnosis, seances and other fringe areas of the occult, because the combined sensitivities of can easily allow them to drown in matters which are deceptively exciting – and may prove tragic.(Source)
I wouldn’t go so far as to advise this pairing to stay way from such matters all together but I would say the Cancer/Pisces natives should only enter occult waterways under the tutelage of a very experienced mentor (navigator) or if they feel confident in being able to apply discernment to what they find “out there”.
For instance, author Annie Jacobsen is a Cancer/Pisces whose made a career out of this pairing’s “ability to detect the hidden”. (Chart) She’s best know for applying the intellectual acumen and forensic skills of an investigative reporter to occult topics such as secret bases, government sponsored seances, and high level experiments involving magic, mind control, and hypnosis. Cancerians are known for their elephant like memories while Pisces Moons are nourished by the mystical and the magical. Jacobsen is, in effect, a historian (Cancer) of our government’s attempts at interacting with the ghost worlds (Pisces Moon). Like Seasat, she too has experience with matters pertaining to Area 51 while more recently she wrote what may be the definitive account of the U.S. government’s investigations into psychic spying and paranormal phenomena:
Bizarre coincidence: Using its release date as its date of birth, the 1983 hit song “Secrets that You Keep” by The Romantics is also a Cancer Sun, Pisces Moon. (Chart) The song includes the line, “When I hold you in my arms at night, don’t you know you’re sleeping in a spotlight?”. Take a listen to the song, then take look back at NASA’s original drawing of SeaSat embedded above and see if you don’t notice something extremely uncanny about that image as it relates to the lyrics:
The song could be a theme song for SeaSat as the chorus “I hear the secrets that you keep when you’re talking in your sleep” describes exactly what SeaSat did during its operational lifetime. It’s also an accurate assessment of the role Ms. Jacobsen plays in our culture as she has accomplished with writing books something similar to what Seasat accomplished via imaging in space. Jacobsen’s a Pullitzer Prize finalist in history while Seasat is a history making oceanographic satellite; both have shined spotlights on secrets carried out while the rest of us have been asleep or kept in the dark. Among other similarities, acobsen’s conclusions regarding the truth about what happened at Roswell, New Mexico during the summer of 1947 are every bit as unsettling as Seasat’s encounters with the 4450 “Grim Reapers” squadron. (Hint: they’re far more disturbing than just space aliens.)
Area 51: An Uncensored History and Phenomena by Annie Jacobsen
Seasat’s imagery has proven enormously popular with scientists researching the health of ecosystems beneath our oceans while Jacobsen’s books have become best sellers among citizens concerned about what our government(s) are doing behind closed doors. She is, in effect, an intuitively inclined merchanteer of history books (Cancer) about phenomena so strange they mystify the imagination (Pisces Moon).
Mercury/Jupiter in the 8th House: Seeing the Monsters in the Closet
Assuming the 6:12 pm launch time cited in NASA’s final 1980 report is accurate, SeaSat’s Mercury (communication) and Jupiter (expansion) were both in its 8th House. In Western astrology, the 8th House is the house of “other people’s resources.” Astrologer Dana Gerhardt refers to the 8th House as where “monsters in the closet” are kept hidden. (Source) Nuclear armed ICBM loaded submarines lurking beneath the ocean’s surface and classified black projects being flown out of Area 51 certainly fit the description of “monsters hiding in the closet”.
With three planets in the 8th house of ancestral legacy, SeaSat glimpsed the secret history of its own heritage. (Photo: USS Nautilus, U.S. Navy)
The 8th House is also considered the house of “ancestral legacy”. (Source) It’s where we keep those matters that “the family simply doesn’t speak about”. Although SeaSat was a civilian craft on a mission of peace, most of the technologies it carried on its insides could be traced back to classified military projects. When SeaSat detected those nuclear submarines it was, in a manner of speaking, glimpsing the secret history of its own ancestry.
Astrologically, SeaSat’s demise coincided with the transit of Mars (explosions) directly over its natal Uranus. (Chart) In western astrology, Uranus is considered the ruler of electricity both out in terms of technology and the electrical impulses that run through the human body. It’s not uncommon for people going through a Mars/Uranus transit to experience “overload” in either their body’s electrical systems or in their chakras. Both mental breakdowns and kundalini awakenings are associated with Mars/Uranus contacts. SeaSat, of course, is not a human but it did have an electrical nervous system not totally unlike what humans have. Consider, for instance, the language astrologer Robert Hand uses to describe a Mars/Uranus transit and see if it doesn’t parallel what happened to SeaSat:
No other transit is more conducive than this one to surprising incidents. Energy seems to burst out all over the place and in surprising forms.
This is a transit of rebellion an often indicates others might try to limit you in some way. Your relationships with authority figures are not likely to be very good [during this time] . . . (Source)
Even if SeaSat’s early demise was entirely coincidental there’s no doubt that A) energy did burst out all over its electrical system and B) the authorities were none too pleased with it and certainly hoped to place limits on it.
The transiting Mars to natal Uranus contact that coincided with SeaSat’s demise was in Scorpio, the sign most associated with covert operations. It took place right on the cusp of SeaSat’s 12th House, the “House of Secret Enemies” in traditional astrological parlance.
Mars in Virgo in the 9th House: Florence Nightingale Takes to the Wild Blue Yonder
Mars is a person’s inner warrior. SeaSat’s Mars is in the 9th House, the House of long distance travel, philosophy, expanded horizons, and higher education. People with Mars in the 9th will often fight (Mars) for social reform (the 9th House). SeaSat was not a person fighting for social reform but the technologies it demonstrated have certainly served to deepen levels of environmental awareness.
EnviSat and ERS flying in tandem. (Source: ESA)
SeaSat’s Mars is in Virgo, the sign of duty and service, due diligence and detailed analysis, professional competency and technical wizardry. Astrologer Sue Tompkins says Mars in Virgo “conjures up the notion of military service, ambulance driving, or involvement with organizations such as the Red Cross.” (Source) Perhaps then it’s no coincidence that SeaSat’s technological offspring such as the EnviSat and the ERS were instrumental in organizing relief efforts following the Haiti earthquake of 2010 as well as understanding the global wide impact of the Fukushima earthquake in 2011. (Source)
North Node in the 10th House: Point of Destiny in the House of “Gifts to the World”
The North Node represents destiny, should the native choose to accept it. SeaSat’s North Node is in Libra, the sign most associated with maintaining an appropriate “balance of power”. It’s in the 10th House, which is considered the world stage. Astrologers Steven and Jodie Forest tell us that when the North Node is in the 10th House, “the essence of the evolutionary strategy lies in simply launching themselves into the white water of life lived in the context of the community . . . (Source) SeaSat wasn’t launched into the (literal) “white water of life in the [world] community” but it did go bravely into the dangerous world of outer space from where it studied the white water of life in the oceans.
Although no longer transmitting data, SeaSat is still “up there” dutifully orbiting the Earth. A member of the Heavens Above satellite tracking project managed to capture a glimpse of it above the Brighton AIDS Memorial in London as recently as August 2010. (Source) That SeaSat would last be seen above an AIDS memorial seems fitting. At its highest expression, Cancer/Pisces is very attuned to the alleviation of unnecessary suffering.
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 at his contact page.
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Matthew Savinar, Novalee Truesdell, and Carrie Davoli on the premier issue of Hexagon
Combine an Aquarius Sun’s passion for both technology and truth-seeking with a Gemini Moon’s instincts for communicative arts and the result is a Sun/Moon pairing that’s innovative, intelligent, and incredibly advanced when it comes to use of the written or spoken word. Astrologer Jefferson Anderson calls Aquarius Sun, Gemini Moon the Sun/Moon pairing of “the Journalist” while Bil Tierney says this is a liberal minded, freedom loving pairing that doesn’t do well in “societies that heavily censor information . . . or environments that suppress free speech”. (Source) To illustrate: journalist Michael Hastings is an Aquarius/Gemini renown for his efforts at exposing heavily censored information. (Chart) A number of his investigative pieces caused profound consternation for high-ranking members of society who wish to suppress free speech, most notably his June 2010 piece in Rolling Stone magazine that led to the resignation of General Stanley McChrystal. Hastings had been working on an expose of CIA director John Brennan when his brand new Mercedes sedan mysteriously exploded at a Los Angeles intersection in June 2013.
According to astrologers Suzi and Charles Harvey, a metaphoric image for the Aquarius/Gemini pairing is “A child in balloon drifts over the city reporting back by portable phone on all below”. (Source) That’s an uncannily accurate description of Michael Hastings. He obviously wasn’t a child but at the relatively young age of 33 Hastings had managed to drift over the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan and report back on all that he saw. He also routinely reported back on two other “wars”, those being the U.S. government’s wars on both privacy and journalism.
Unfortunately, the Harvey’s image is an equally uncannily accurate metaphor of another Aquarius/Gemini albeit one that is to Michael Hastings what one of Darth Vader’s TIE Fighters is to Han Solo. Using its first flight as its date of birth, the MQ-9 “Reaper” Drone is also an Aquarius Sun, Gemini Moon. (Chart) MQ-9 drones aren’t children drifting over cities in balloons but they are tasked with patrolling geopolitical hot spots and using radically advanced (Aquarius) communication (Gemini) capabilities to report back on everything below. Aquarius/Geminis are often fascinated by other cultures and, indeed, the majority of MQ-9s deployed around the world do spend most of their waking hours reporting on people of other cultures. Sometimes they’re even tasked with more than just “reporting”:
Astrologer Stella Hyde says Aquarians who turn to the dark side of this cerebral sign make for great “stalkers, snipers, and spies” while dark side Geminis do well in professions that require no moral perceptions such as gun running and drug smuggling. (Source) The MQ-9 is essentially an airborne stalker/sniper whose capacity for remote, video-game style killing requires little in the way of moral perception. This morale patch from an MQ-9 squadron captures the morally troublesome aspects of its sniping/stalking missions with a great deal of accuracy:
Of course proponents of technologies like the MQ-9 Reaper will argue that they’re an incredibly valuable tool when it comes to stalking/spying/surveilling (Aquarius) bad guys such as international gun runners and drug smugglers (Gemini). If that’s really the case then one can’t help but wonder why a squadron of “Reapers” aren’t busy surveilling the “lawless border region” that is the headquarters of HSBC, the Wall Street bank recently caught laundering billions of dollars for Mexican drug cartels. (Source)
Charts with the same Sun/Moon pairing will often express in eerie similar fashions even if one chart belongs to something life-and-death serious like a piece of military hardware and the other belongs to someone or something associated with fun and games. To illustrate: using its initial launch date as its date of birth, the way-ahead-of-its-time 1962 video game Space War! is also an Aquarius Sun, Gemini Moon. (Chart) According to recent Yahoo Games article, Space War ushered in the era of video games as we now understand them. (Source) In true Aquarius/Gemini fashion, the game involved star-ships (Aquarius) piloted by two (Gemini) players orbiting a star in the center of the screen.
Space War is an Aquarius Sun, Gemini Moon. Photo: Joi Ito, Wikipedia
Strangely enough, MQ-9 Reapers are controlled by soldiers sitting in front of video game style computer systems that are the technological progeny of the IBM mainframe computers on which Space War was played back in the 1960s.
As you have probably ascertained by now, in addition to being a quick-witted communicator and something of a shock jock, the textbook Aquarius/Gemini is often involved in the propagation of futuristic technologies. This is true whether the Aquarius/Gemini in question is an airborne killing machine in the age of networked warfare like the MQ-9 or a computer scientist working in the age of post-Constitutional America like Aquarius/Gemini Phil Zimmerman. (Chart) If you haven’t heard of Zimmerman before he’s the peace activist who in 1991 invented “Pretty Good Privacy” (PGP), a data encryption and decryption computer program that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communication. (Source) In short, PGP is one of the few tools regular citizens can use to keep their communications free from the prying eyes of “high tech hitmen” on the payroll of three letter agencies and their corporate allies. Zimmerman’s invention worked so well that the U.S. government initially classified it as a “military technology” and subjected him to a three year long criminal investigation for allegedly violating the Arms Export Control. (Source)
As far as how exactly PGP works, the University of Pittsburgh has published an in-depth primer for those who might be curious. If, however, you’re the sort who prefers an astrological explanation over a technical one then take a look at what Linda Goodman says about the Aquarius/Gemini capacity for highly experimental (Aquarius) forms of data transfer (Gemini):
. . . both signs are masters of the twisted phrase, mind blowers. With their upside down cakes of phraseology and crisscross alliteration, Aquarius and Gemini would make a great team writing verses for Chinese fortune cookies . . .
. . . they can be a delightful pair, an exasperating puzzle to everyone else, but an open book to each other . . . It’s impossible to predict with these two. They’re both too complex with the average Earthling.
. . . both are able to substitute one word for another, as they do with all polarities, completely comprehending what many people do not: that one thing always contains particles of its opposite.(Source)
Curiously enough, the mechanics of Zimmerman’s PGP technology bear a strong resemblance to Mrs. Goodman’s description of the Aquarius/Gemini pairing. PGP apparently works by making encrypted emails as difficult for prying eyes to understand as a “twisted, mind blowing upside down cake” of computer algorithms more complex than “Chinese fortune cookie verses written in crisscross alliteration with one word substituted for another” while each PGP key (literally) “contains the inverse particles of its opposite” key. The resulting electronic transmission is “an exasperating puzzle” to anybody except the intended recipient for whom it’s as delightfully easy to read as “an open book”. PGP is still so “complex for average Earthlings” to decode that Digital Trends magazine recently compared cracking it to “building a national park on the Moon”. (Source)
As far as the circumstances surrounding Michael Hastings’ death are concerned, they’re still as shrouded in complexity as PGP encrypted email. One thing, however, is absolutely certain: the computer systems embedded in modern day cars like the one Hastings was driving the night of his death are disturbingly easy for computer hackers to get into. Here, for instance, is a DARPA program manager explaining how easy it is to perform a “high tech hit job” on the typical late model vehicle:
What’s even more disturbing is that the story Hastings was working on is rumored to have had him on the trail of a consortium of shadowy cyber-security firms staffed by high tech hitmen capable of sabotaging a car’s computer systems as easily as you or I can send an email. According to an article in L.A. Weekly magazine, Hastings had begged to borrow a friend’s car a few hours before his death as he feared his has been tampered with. In other words, it’s entirely plausible the future (Aquarius) was communicating (Gemini) with him right up until the day he died.
About the Author: Matt 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 at his contact page.
Symbolized as a centaur-archer armed with a quiver full of flaming arrows, Sagittarius is the sign most likely to ride into a sleepy village in the middle of the night and raise absolute holy hell. Women with their Sun (identity) in this wildly adventurous sign will often come to be identified with their boldness, their athleticism, and their propensity to “grab the spotlight and set shit off” to quote astrologer Sonya Magett. (Source) This is the woman you’ll see “showing up in an outfit made for the comic books” Magett observes. (Source) To illustrate: using the comic book’s original publication date as the character’s date of birth, Wonder Woman herself is a Sagittarius. (Chart) She’s been showing up in “outfits made for the comic books” and “setting shit off” for the last 70 years. If Bruce Lee and Samuel Jackson are the ultimate examples of Sagittarius men who became icons for firing flaming arrows of truth, justice, and total badassery at all-comers then Wonder Woman is a case-study in the Sagittarius female’s desire to outfight, outrun, and outshoot the boys:
Sagittarius loves two things more than anything else: wild adventures and straight shooting honesty. Not coincidentally, Wonder Woman has her own airplane for spur of the moment adventures and is armed with a magical lasso that compels others to speak the truth.
Astrologer Austin Coppock describes Sagittarius as the “Doom Super Soldier” of the zodiac whose life is all about non-stop action while Stella Hyde says Sagittarians make for great rock stars, car-jackers, and crocodile wranglers. (Source) They are particularly well suited for work as “stunt artists” since this line of work allows them to “crash through plate glass windows and get paid for it” Hyde tell us. (Source) To illustrate: using its premier date as its date of birth, the 1980s all female professional wrestling promotion known as the “Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling” (GLOW) has its Sun, Venus, Saturn, and Uranus all in Sagittarius. (Chart) The promotion was, in effect, a band of female stunt artists who (briefly) became something akin to rock stars for raising absolute holy hell in the sleepy village that was late night television during the uber-conservative Reagan era. Two of the performers even came to the ring dressed as car-jackers (“Hollywood and Vine”) while another arrived as an actual crocodile wrangler (“Jungle Woman”). More than a few appear to have been “doom super soldiers” of various persuasions, whether in spirit or by trade. The ladies of GLOW may not have crashed through actual plate glass windows but they did shake up society’s glass like assumptions regarding what women should or should not do with their bodies. They did such a memorable job of breaking barriers that the promotion is now the subject of a top ranked Netflix series:
Sagittarius women love to make audacious proclamations every bit as much as their male counterparts and, indeed, the line from the GLOW rap “we come from the streets, we come from the city, we come from the world where there is no pity” is an excellent summary of the Sagittarius female’s bold approach to life.
It may seem ridiculous to use a cultural roller coaster as spectacularly absurd as GLOW to illustrate anything serious but truth be told it’s a textbook example of all things Sagittarius. During its four year run the promotion “grabbed the spotlight and set shit off” so boldly that shortly before its unexplained folding it had amassed 7 million weekly viewers, an incredible number given its threadbare budget and kitschy production values. In true Sagittarian fashion, GLOW even managed to fire off a few flaming arrows of competition at the World Wrestling Federation, the vastly larger wrestling company that considered women incapable of getting the job done as actual in ring performers. As a surprisingly moving 2012 documentary about GLOW explains, the ladies were politically incorrect, totally out of control, and unlike anything else on television at the time. In other words, they were as Sagittarius it gets:
It’s a toss up between Aquarius and Sagittarius as to which astrological sign is most likely to believe “the powers that be” are suppressing advancements in science and technology or silencing truth-tellers. GLOW obviously had nothing to do with suppressed science or advancements in technology but one can’t help but why, out of the blue, it was forced to close up shop after only 4 years in existence. With 7 million weekly viewers, very healthy profit margins, and seemingly unlimited marketing opportunities something doesn’t add up about why it was shut down at the very height of its popularity. Maybe the idea that wrestling was obviously entertainment and that women could draw ratings as well as men was a bit too much truth for the wrestling world’s version of the “men behind the curtain”. Female icon and all round Super-Sag Wonder Woman has never gotten her own motion picture the way iconic male superheroes like Superman and Batman have, perhaps for some of the same narrow minded reasons GLOW has never been resuscitated.
Like her male counterpart, the Sagittarius woman will often outdo her competition by leaps and bounds. Magett warns her readers that this is the sign most likely to take a broken champagne bottle to somebody’s neck at a party or to solve a workplace dispute by leaving a bag of snakes on their boss’s desk. (Source) None of the GLOW ladies ever went quite that far but one did routinely make her way to the ring operating an actual chainsaw while another once wrestled a live bear. (Being half-horse Sag is usually an animal lover) Even those performers who shied away from industrial strength power tools or 700 pound killer animals made no apologies for venturing way outside the boundaries of what was considered socially acceptable for women to be doing with their lives.
Astrologer Raven Kaldera associates Sagittarius with the myth of Vainamoinen, the Finnish God of adventure whose array of fascinating friends and talented sidekicks help him save the day. (Source) According to Kaldera, Vainamoinen’s gift is “to see the golden dream on the far horizon, to figure out the pathway there, to shoot for it, and to inspire others to do the same”. (Source) As the high decibel haute couture favored by the ladies of GLOW makes quite clear, the promotion had no shortage of “fascinating friends and talented sidekicks”:
More importantly than its array of fascinating and talented performers, GLOW inspired its fan base of young women to shoot for the horizons, dream the dreams, and venture the pathways of their own choosing without being held back by society’s assumptions regarding their gender. At the height of its popularity a number of the wrestlers were receiving upwards of 300 fan letters per week, most from young girls seeking advice on how to follow in the footsteps of the Vainamoinen inspired women they were watching on television each week. Writing for Vice Magazine, journalist Jennifer Juniper Stratford recalls the uplifting effect GLOW’s “take no prisoners” approach had on her as a teenager, emphasis added:
One morning in 1986, my mother came barging into the room I shared with my sister, insisting that we get in front of the television. “I think I found the greatest show on television,” she exclaimed. “It’s called the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling!”
We crowded around a tiny television and within seconds we were cheering and picking out our favorites. I was 14 at the time and these women were the absolute coolest role models a teenager could ask for. Not only did they wear fantastic outfits while they smashed someone’s head against the turnbuckle, they put feminine stereotypes in a chokehold as well by celebrating the many facets of women using strength and humor. Growing up with a single mom in an all-female household, this was exactly what we needed.(Source)
In other words, what was most Sagittarian of all about GLOW had noting to do with the big hair, outrageous outfits, or wildly out of control performances. According to a review of the GLOW documentary, “GLOW was about a whole lot more than wrestling or even sports: It was about politics, race, sex, gender, and power, and about who controls narratives about women’s bodies and desires”. (Source) Sagittarius is ultimately the sign of the Philosopher and the Clown, both of whom on are quests. The Philosopher is on a quest to seek great spiritual truths while the Clown is on a quest simply to have fun. Behind all the absurdity and camp of GLOW the ladies truly were on a pair of Sagittarian style quests, one to show that women are perfectly capable of defining their own experiences and the other to have outrageous loads of fun while doing so.
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 at his contact page.
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Pictured Above: Matthew Savinar, Novalee Truesdell, and Carrie Davoli on the premier issue of Hexagon
Editor’s Note: audio/visual versions of this article have been uploaded to YouTube and Libsyn. -Matt
Along with being the most health conscious sign of the zodiac, Virgo also excels at writing, analysis, and forensic research due to its eye for detail, accuracy, and love of footnotes. In medical astrology, Virgo is associated with the intestines which through their power of analysis and discretion decide what stays with the body and what is discarded as waste. Virgo’s penchant for analysis and association with the intestines is also why you’ll find a disproportionate number of muckrakers born under this sign. Journalist Upton Sinclair, whose 1903 book The Jungle exposed the horrors of the early 20th century meatpacking industry, is a representative Virgo Sun. Combine the intellectual leanings of a Virgo Sun with a Leo Moon’s instincts for showmanship and the result is a Sun/Moon that is capable of doing muckraking journalism (Virgo) in a fashion that’s highly theatrical (Leo). To illustrate: using its on-air premier date as its date of birth, the 2003 ESPN television series Playmakers is a Virgo Sun, Leo Moon. (Chart)
Yes, Playmakers was about football but don’t let that dissuade you from giving it serious consideration. The series was absolutely riveting, receiving acclaim from critics (Virgo) and sky high ratings (Leo) from viewers; a well crafted, smartly written (Virgo) piece of theater (Leo) that was to professional football at the turn of 21st century what The Jungle was to the meatpacking industry at the turn of the 20th. The show was designed for male football aficionados yet brought in huge numbers of both women and non-sports fans because it depicted the most human of dramas: depression and drug addiction, unsettling power dynamics and deeply troubling family legacies. The plot lines were thought-provoking (Virgo) yet entertaining (Leo), featuring multi-faceted characters cast into complex ethical dilemmas with no easy solutions. The show’s story arcs were fictional but highly realistic and more than a bit prescient: a star quarterback keeping his painkiller habit from his doctor, a young running back trying to escape a family curse, a respected veteran player covering up un-respectable actions from the past, a team doctor caught in an ethical quandary, a head coach keeping his cancer diagnosis from his family, and a Catholic wide receiver keeping his homosexuality from everybody — all issues that the NFL has done its best to deny or dismiss over the last 15 years. The show was a hit because it depicted the players not as caricatures but as human beings, exactly what Upton Sinclair did with meatpackers in The Jungle a century earlier.
Unfortunately, despite sky high ratings and critical acclaim, the series only lasted for one season as it absolutely enraged the NFL who pressured ESPN to kill it. Amazingly, one team owner said he felt the NFL was as wholesome an institution as Disneyland but that Playmakers had depicted it as being akin to the Medellin drug cartel. That’s a strange analogy to make since the NFL is arguably responsible for more heads being bashed and lives being shortened than Pablo Escobar himself.
The theme for Playmakers includes a line “Still on beat, showin’ love to the streets come on you know me” — which just so happens to describe this pairing’s combination of conscientious mindfulness (Virgo) and full-hearted bravura (Leo Moon). In her book Love Signs, Linda Goodman describes the Virgo/Leo pairing as being exceptionally well suited for taking the beats to the streets and doing so with lots of love:
. . . [this pairing] will waltz down the Yellow Brick Road, grinning at each other and tossing posies, as happy and hopeful as we mortals are capable for being, with Leo strumminig the ukulele and Virgo playing the piccolo, serenely singing their song in tune. If it goes out for a key for a few bars, Virgo will immediately blow the proper note on a pitch pipe, correct the situation, and all will be melodious again . . .”(Source)
Goodman goes on to describe high functioning Virgo/Leo pairing as “miracle set to music”. To illustrate: music journalist and hip-hop legend Fred Brathwaite is a Virgo with his Moon in Leo. (Chart) Braithwaite, best known as “Fab Five Freddy”, started off as rapper and street artist in New York’s early 1980s underground hip hop and punk scenes. In 1988 he came to public attention as the original host of Yo! MTV Raps, the first television show dedicated specifically to rap music. Freddy has likely never played the ukulele or piccolo but as the host of Yo! he did put in a lot of work getting hip hop music onto to the multi-billion dollar Yellow Brick Road of mainstream acceptance:
These days hip hop music is nearly ubiquitous. In fact, it’s such a part of contemporary culture that there are now a not insignificant number of police officers who grew up listening to rapper Ice Cube belt out “F–k Tha’ Police” while KRS One’s hit “Sound of the Police” is now used to sell internet services. At the time Freddy started hosting Yo! things were a good deal different. Back then hip hop was seen by middle America as occupying a space between fadish and irrelevant, dangerous and criminalistic. Freddy’s work as the host of Yo! helped bring it from the fringes of the party to being the party itself. In 1988 there was no Twitter or YouTube or Soundcloud for independent artists to get their work in front of the public. If you were an up-and-coming rapper who aspired to be a real playmaker, your best bet at the time was to score an appearance on Yo! with Fab Five Freddy where you’d get a chance to “stay on beat” while “showin’ love to streets”.
Yo! may not have been a literal “miracle set to music” as per Goodman’s description of the Virgo/Leo pairing but with Freddy at the helm it definitely served as a working class (Virgo) home for entertainment (Moon in Leo) at its finest. Numerous household names in the hip hop game ranging from Fresh Prince (Will Smith) to Queen Latifah to Salt-N-Pepa’ made their television debuts alongside Freddy on Yo!. Once there they were free to serenely sing their songs, blow their notes, and be as melodious as they wanted (or didn’t want) to be.
According to astrologer Stella Hyde, Virgos make for great homeopaths and life coaches while Leo Moons are nourished by highly theatrical jobs such media mogul, circus ringmaster, and WWE wrestler. YouTube health and fitness celebrity Brandon Carter is a Virgo Sun, Leo Moon. (Chart) Carter is, in effect, a life coach (Virgo Sun) with the stage presence of a WWE superstar (Leo Moon), a statistician-homeopath (Virgo) whose the circus ringmaster of a social media empire (Leo Moon), a DIY nutritionist (Virgo) surrounded by an entourage of compatriots (Leo Moon) — some hailing from the halls of high society, some straight from the ‘hood, some sophisticated, some scurrilous. If you haven’t seen his YouTube channel it’s the sort of thing you’d expect to see if Tony Robbins (“Awaken the Power Within”) collaborated with John Shaft (“He’s a Bad Mother . . .”) or Tim Ferris (“Four Hour Body”) co-hosted a seminar with rapper Too Short (“Born to Mack”). It’s one part Dr. Axe, one part LL Cool J:
Carter’s best known for helping to popularize what are known as “street workouts”, an insurgent exercise movement that is one part old school calisthenics, one part freestyle break-dancing. Unlike expensive memberships at corporate owned globo-gyms or the over priced pretentiousness of many yoga studios, street workouts require nothing more than access to an outdoor park and a good attitude. The workouts are a highly efficient (Virgo Sun) form of exercise that rewards stagecraft and creativity (Leo Moon), one whose adherents are to mainstream gym chains what crypto-currency investors are are to the Federal Reserve or what builders of “tiny homes” are to the Toll Brothers corporation. Some samples are viewable at this link:
Don’t be too distracted by the shirtless theatrics, there is more to this pairing then keeping the body fat low (Virgo) and the drama quotient high (Leo Moon). According to astrologer Raven Kaldera, Virgo/Leo is the Sun/Moon of “The Bard” whose job is to speak truth (Virgo) to power (Leo):
The Bard is willing to go forth and speak in a sacred voice, telling even rulers how to rule and putting a check on tyranny.
The Bard was deemed too dangerous to less secure Kings, and he was taken out of the equation . . . a deed that became deadly in the end. When the Bard cannot act as a check and balance to the King, the situation is turned over to the Aquarius opposition, who will have the King down as fast as possible. Thus the Bard’s job is crucial to the King, even if the King dislikes it occasionally (or often).(Source)
Kaldera tells us that in addition to speaking truth to power, the Virgo/Leo Bard can often be found speaking, writing, or reading “eloquent and inspirational political writing and thinking deeply about how it moves them.” (Source) Prior to becoming a fitness (Virgo) celebrity (Leo), Carter had gained some traction in the independent music scene. Like the music of any good Bard, his lyrics were aimed at putting a check on the tyrannical rule of various out of control Kings. Consider, for instance, these excerpts from his 2010 single “Blood Money”:
That Holy war ain’t working Mosque and Churches get it straight . . . Because I know for certain the verses don’t advocate . . . You killing another person or hurting them for their faith . . . Al-Qaeda wont see the virgins, Bush wont see no pearly Gates . . . They tryin’ to enslave you, Obama works for Goldman Sachs, how he gonna save you?
Carter’s video for “Blood Money” was released to YouTube where it quickly racked up 200,000 views before YouTube removed it from their site for reasons that are not totally clear.
Carter released “Blood Money” during the heyday of the Occupy Wall Street movement, a brief time during which it seemed the forces of decency might be turning the tables on the forces of tyranny. Unfortunately, that era did not last long. By the fall of 2016 autocracy was on the rise and hate on the offensive. Despite the efforts of Bards throughout the country, Donald Trump ultimately ascended to the office of the Presidency via a campaign of garish misogyny and race based grievances. Furthermore, a number of respected outlets suspect the Trump family is funded by blood money while it’s now become clear they intend to bleed the country dry.
An ad-hoc, Aquarian-era network of groups has since coalesced into “the Resistance”, a series of loosely affiliated tribes who seek to oppose the Trump family and turn back the damage they’re doing to the country and world. The Resistance has scored some definite victories in recent months, mostly by rallying together the targets of Trump’s scapegoating: women, immigrants, members of the LGBTQ community, and others. However, it has also struggled mightily to connect with the disaffected young males that form the backbone of the “alt-right” — the internet era, social media shock-mob that propelled Trump into power.
Purusing his YouTube channel, it appears that Carter has pivoted from his more politically oriented, Occupy Wall Street era musical projects into selling sports supplements and providing life success tips. That sort of pivot is certainly understandable given how difficult it is to monetize one’s creativity in the current media environment. That goes double if you don’t have family money, a fat curriculum vitae, or flush Silicon Valley stock options to fall back on. At the same, it’s really unfortunate. The forces that have mobilized to oppose the alt-right eventually must connect with at least a portion of those disaffected males if they hope to turn back the tides of fascism. Running 76 year old Bernie Sanders or establishment wonder-boy Joe Kennedy out there is only going to get “the Resistance” so far. If they really want to win they’d be wise to consider enlisting the services of some legitimate playmakers who can “stay on beat while showing love to the streets” ala Brandon Carter.
Matt Savinar DBA Hexagon Astrology is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com
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