“It’s the most heroic thing we can do now – look the truth in the face.” Sansa Stark, Game of Thrones
In a holistic universe, the One is the Many and the Many are One. You could say that the relationships between the many constitute the health of the whole.
Think of the cells in your body. Our health depends on them all working together. When one set of cells begins to attack another set, we fall ill. To restore health we need to bring them all back into balance.
I think it’s fair to say that our body politic is seriously ill. Our center is collapsing, our government becoming more and more dysfunctional as the factions in our two-party system grow further and further apart. We watch this internal conflict and, like spectators at the Super Bowl, we choose sides. We’re rooting for our team to win. In the process, WE are losing. The more we are polarized, the more we become paralyzed.
We hear endless talk about healing the rift of polarization. Each side wishes the other would be more reasonable, see things its way. We try to convince each other that we are right. This will never work. The only solution is to rise above the conflict and set our sights on the health of the whole.
First of all, I don’t think We the People are as polarized as we’re told. I think our politicians have left us behind and gone off to war in Washington. Our media report constantly on this war and we’re sucked back into rooting for our team, demonizing the opponent. But I believe basically we all want the same thing – a happy, fulfilling life. That’s a place to start.
It’s obvious our “perfect union” is in serious trouble. In fact we are in crisis. The bad news is that we could lose our way of life. The good news is that crisis holds the potential for transformation.
Over the next several weeks, we’re going to examine the birth chart of the USA. My apologies to my British readers, but I do believe that what happens here will determine the fate of the world. We are the world’s symbol of freedom and democracy. If our experiment fails, Democracy could be lost for the next few thousand years. The United States has to live up to its name and lead the way through this transformation.
So let’s begin with the USA Sun. The Sun is the life force. It represents the identity – the I Am-ness of a person, place or thing. The identity of our nation lies in Cancer. Cancer is ruled by the Moon. It’s a watery, emotional sign. A person born with a Cancer Sun came here to feel, to learn about the emotional body and gain emotional maturity. And so it is for the U.S.
We are a very young nation, in our adolescence. We walk with swagger, but we’re insecure. We’re obsessed with image. We spend billions on clothes, make-up, plastic surgery – anything that keeps us looking young. We want to fit in. We gossip endlessly about celebrities and each other. We are obsessed with sex and women’s breasts and the size of our equipment. We are devoted to the superficial.
We’re fiercely independent and rebellious, get moody when things don’t go our way. We’re sensitive and overreact to imagined slights. We’re addicted to melodrama, thrive on conflict and share endless stories in which we are either the hero or the victim. How many times a week do you hear “You won’t believe what happened to me!”? To quote Dane Rudhyar “In Cancer, it is the ego, with all its complexes . . . which is the actor.”
Cancer is associated with the home. It’s driving ambition is to establish a safe environment in which to thrive. In its highest expression it is the nurturing mother, caring and providing for her children, making them feel loved and secure.
Think back to what America was initially – a safe harbor for refugees from persecution or poverty. We were the land of the free and thousands came here to start a new life, believing in the American Dream. Our Statue of Liberty, a gift from France, bears the words: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.” That was how we were seen by the rest of the world – a safe refuge.
The USA Cancer Sun is in the 7th house of the chart. It’s all about relationships. We’re having a hard time with that. Look at how we treat each other. We judge, exclude, attack, bully, ignore, intimidate, demean and scramble over each other, like crabs in a barrel, to get to the top. How can anyone feel safe in this environment? We’re so afraid of one another – afraid to go out on the street at night, afraid we’ll be robbed or mugged or raped. We’re afraid of foreigners. We used to welcome them with open arms. Now we take their children away from them and put them in concentration camps. This is our Fall from Grace.
How do we handle our fears? We pull in like turtles, we build fences and walls, we buy weapons. Our nation builds the world’s largest defense system. And yet our fear grows. It becomes a destructive force that generates rage and violence. We’re afraid of each other. We hate each other. We kill each other. How well can we possibly function as a body, a nation?
And look at how we treat our Mother! We’re poisoning Her Garden. We’re treating her like a garbage dump or a garage sale. Our government is sanctioning this by issuing permission slips to destroy landscapes in order to mine her mineral wealth and then dump the waste into our water and air. Permission slips to spread toxic chemicals over our land, slowly killing the very soil that nourishes us. We are committing suicide.
Teenage suicide has risen at an alarming rate. It holds up a mirror, revealing what we are doing to ourselves. We cannot exist without air, water, earth and the fire of the sun. We know that clear air and water are better than polluted air and water. We tell ourselves that it’s okay as long as we don’t do too much. Children are dying. Cancer is an epidemic. And yet we issue more permission slips. It’s like the old joke, “Can I just do it until I need glasses?” We know it’s the wrong thing to do – it isn’t good for us – but we do it anyway. That’s adolescent.
We are self-destructive. We are aggressive. We are violent. We are the bullies of the world. This is not the behavior of wise adults. We hold the same attitude toward our precious Earth as teenagers hold toward their parents. We show contempt. We throw our clothes on the floor, trash our rooms, live like “slovens.” We’re loud and boisterous and don’t care about anyone else. We’re going to have our fun, damage our eardrums with loud music, indulge in self-destructive behavior.
Not all of us are like that now, but we probably were at some point. Look at TV advertising. Look at the images flashed at us from our devices. We are being programmed to believe that this is who we are – sexy, hot, glamorous, rich, carefree youths. We don’t all feel that way so we buy the advertised product. “Maybe I’m not a lady’s man, but if I drove that car, I could be!”
So along comes Saturn, keeping to a destined timetable, on his way to Pluto. It’s time to grow up, America. Adolescence was fun, but not sustainable. Nothing grows you up faster than adversity, and if we don’t wake up and grow up willingly, Pluto will blow it up and we’ll be left picking up the pieces.
I know it’s uncomfortable looking at the shadow side of our life, but it is imperative. Nothing will change if we don’t take stock. Pluto is revealing our dark underbelly. Racism, homophobia, misogyny, xenophobia – our destructive, psychological complexes have risen to the surface. In fact, they are screaming at us. The American Collective is at war with itself. We all can see what a “Cancer” we’re in.
Next time we’ll examine the USA’s Aquarian Moon and Sagittarian Ascendant to fill out more of our collective profile.
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