Uranus square Pluto, Occupy Wall Street, and Karl Marx

I've written quite a bit about the upcoming Uranus/Pluto square, as have many, many other astrologers.  The situation has had me thinking about Karl Marx.  Most people who denigrate Marx or claim Communism is a failed system have not read a page of Marx.  In graduate school I took the opportunity to read not only the Communist Manifesto, but also Das Capital.  Neither of these books are "light" reading.  It's not surprising that Marx would be vilified by the elites and all those in the West who hope to one day be members of the elite group (meaning the vast majority) since he promotes a communal system, a more egalitarian sharing of resources, and the idea that resources are limited and must be managed properly.

Marx not only wrote about a complex problem in a complex way, but he accurately predicted various outcomes and his most important one is coming to pass right now.  Marx argued that capitalism would have to be global before socialism and communism could be viable alternatives because capitalism has to reach the limits of the system in order to show its destructive process to the masses and essentially override any and all propaganda.  He also argued that there was a short cut, violent revolution.  But he provided a caveat, those who overthrew an existing dictatorship or oligarchy would have to give up the power it seized in the revolution, which has not ever happened.  No "communist" country, especially Russia, has implemented Marx's principles; they have just traded one kind of top down power for another and clothed it in the word communism.  In essence, Marx is on the side of the 99 percent.

Occupy Wall Street is in its infancy and will likely sputter along until the European debt crisis matures and wipes out bond holder wealth to a staggering degree.  Look for that event to happen some time between now and the first Uranus/Pluto square in June of 2012.  What Marx wisely predicted was the inherent problem with capitalism, which chugs along just fine so long as there are new frontiers and cheap labor to exploit.  But once the system goes global, then inequalities become more and more apparent.  Western workers are finding that their value is coming in line with the value of Eastern workers, and now that global commerce has taken hold Eastern workers are seeing a rise in their value because there really are no more labor markets to exploit.  As John Mauldin, a very smart economist, entitled his book Endgame, we are beginning to see the Endgame of capitalism as predicted by Marx.  

Many different layers will emerge during this transition period as we begin to reach the limits of our closed system.  Not the least of which is the collusion of technology and population growth.  As technology makes the need for workers decrease and population continues to increase the disparity between those who have and those who do not will continue to grow.  Oddly enough an energy crisis could prove to be a saving grace (in the long run) for the human population.  Watch for problems with liquids (oil and water) as Neptune traverses through Pisces.  And, when energy and jobs become scarce, watch spirituality increase, from the infantile (fundamentalism) to the sophisticated (Hopi and Mayan).

In essence, the world has borrowed about three lifetimes of wealth which cannot be paid back.  We could move towards this future consciously by engaging in some very radical changes, which would include conscious population management, rethinking private and public resources, eliminating corporate charters and the stock market.  But, I suspect and expect the Plutonian/Capricorn elites to resist to the full measure of their greed and wealth, requiring a violent revolution to dislodge them and redistribute resources to the larger civilization.  Nothing new under the sun ...  Don't be surprised if they figure out that they need to shut down the Internet or close it down restrictively if the movement grows and thus dodges the mainstream media.  Once the larger system collapses on itself (debt default), there will be the opportunity for people to come together and look for new, more mature solutions and Marx's prediction of a natural evolution to socialism and communism will prove to be true.

2012 to 2015 - The Coming Storm

In his book on Lunation Cycles Dane Rhudyar emphasizes the cyclic nature of all energy points, not just the Sun and Moon.  To understand the ebb and flow of energy using Astrology, one must understand the current cycle of the energy relationship between two points in the chart.  The one to watch from 2012 to 2015 is the upcoming square between Uranus and Pluto.  Since Uranus is the faster moving of the two, it passes Pluto approximately every 115 years (1850 to 1852 they were conjunct in Aries and 1965 to 1967 they were conjunct in Virgo).  So, looking at the most recent conjunction, the 1960s represented the end of the cycle and the beginning of a new cycle.  In America this transition played out significantly moving the country out of a stratified mind set and into changes that brought new and better opportunities for minorities and women.  The whole period around 1958 to 1972 experienced the combination of Awakening/Transformation in the energy of Virgo, affecting skills, day-to-day work, and health.  Not surprising, the 1960s represent a fairly clear shift from America of 1850 to 1960.

As part of the whole cycle, the energy points will square twice and oppose once.  Significantly the first half of the movement towards the opposition is considered waxing (or increasing in intensity) and the movement towards the conjunction from the opposition is considered waning (or decreasing and preparing for the next cycle).  So, as the full on square approaches in July of 2012, we can expect more volatility that will intensify through 2015 and leave lasting impact on the way to the opposition.  Since the two signs involved are Capricorn (Pluto's transit) and Aries (Uranus' transit), there will be antagonism between big systems going through necessary change and people's survival needs.  The Occupy Wall Street movement will grow as the large systems crumble and people realize that the war is between the 1% and the 99%.  

Greece will default, and even if the European Union provides a bailout now, they will be trapped by all the other countries in need of defaulting or bailing out (Ireland, Portugal, Italy, and Spain).  Sort of, well if Greece gets to cut as much as 50% or more from its bondholder responsibility (or 100% through default), why shouldn't the other countries get the same deal or make the same move.  Basically the EU is backed into a corner.  Iceland has been kept as far out of the news as possible because they gave the finger to British and Scottish banks, defaulted, were froze out of the international credit markets, suffered an economic fall off a cliff, and now (9 months later) are stabilizing and rebuilding their economy in more realistic terms for what the country can produce and sustain.  They are, in fact, living within their means.  The fact that Greece, which probably represents no more than .04% of the world economy, can threaten to bring the whole financial system to its knees helps you can understand how out of control credit lending became while Pluto was transiting through Sagittarius.

I also find it ironically interesting that the "birthplace of Western Civilization" is likely to lead to the "end of Western Civilization" as we have known it pretty much since the last Uranus/Pluto conjunction (during the time of the industrial revolution).  Since the upcoming square involves Cardinal energy, the tension is more likely to be explosive than collaborative.  Jeff Green, in his book on Uranus, points out that Aries represents, at its most primal, the need to survive.  More broadly Aries rules the pioneering spirit, independence, arrogance, and selfishness.  As more and more people see the big systems fail and the corporate and banking ruling class no longer hide as effectively behind both parties, it will become clear that the political system is rigged on both sides of the isle.  Both parties are now, more clearly than ever, the tools of corporate greed, especially now that corporations are people too!  We are also seeing how fully controlled the mainstream media is by the same powers, as they do their best to denigrate the protesters, put as the lead story the release of some woman accused of murder in Italy 2 years ago, and make claims (thank you Hermann Cain) that this protest against greed is Un-American.  I wonder if Mr. Cain would feel the same about Civil Rights protests that helped put him into a position where his "work hard" did allow him to become wealthy.  Obviously he did everything on his own.

Everything will be done to avoid taxing the wealthy since they have so clearly paid to put people in office to protect their interests.  While 2012 may not be the year to throw out everyone from both parties, it will likely be the catalyst year when people finally realize that neither party is interested in protecting the larger populations interest for the common good.  How radical could Pluto become with the antagonism from Uranus?  How about the end of private/corporate donor money to politicians?  Term limits for Congress?  A line item veto or better yet, one item per bill?  The stripping away of corporate charters and the elimination of the stock market and the privatization of all companies?  Maybe at the end of the Plutonic transit.  Right now I expect more the cutting of services and the end of Social Security, Medicare, and other entitlements, even though they will not be nearly enough to cover the debt and the most "essential" service, the military.

Unemployment will continue to increase and power will continue to consolidate.  In the US only 4 banks own all the remaining banks and Bank of America is on its too big way to failing, leaving the other three to gobble it up (the rich eat their own, just ask Lehman Brothers employees).  How many phone carriers remain; the magic number of 4 again (Verizon, ATT, Sprint, and T-Moble) with a merger underway.  And keep in mind that, on the whole, advances in technology always eliminate more jobs than they create, which does not help when the population keeps increasing.  The number they do not talk about in the monthly job report is the 65,000 jobs you need to create just to handle population growth (all those 17 year olds that become 18 year olds each month).  So when you read about 103,000 new jobs in September, make sure to subtract 65,000 from that number to get a more correct number.  Now consider all the months in which there was no job growth.  And keep in mind that every time a Republican suggest cutting the deficit by cutting the budget he or she is really saying "let's put more people out of work."

The sad, difficult truth is that private companies cannot do all the hiring and that the government is a massive employer.  Unemployment benefits keep the peace.  Sports won't be enough to keep the masses distracted when they have to cut off their cable to have extra money to buy food.  2012 will be a big year, but 2013 and 2015 will contain all the real action.  If the wealthy successfully block tax increases and new technology continues to displace people and we keep increasing the overall population, we will begin to see the survival instinct/awareness so basic to Aries begin to grow more restless.  For the first time in human history we are actually reaching the boundaries of our closed system; there is no such thing as limitless growth on a sphere.  And unless we develop a warp drive in the near future, we are likely to meet the boundaries in this century.