THE NEXT NEW WORLD
By Rick DiClemente and Cheryl Crise
Just about the same time that people waited in long lines to purchase Microsoft’s Windows ’95, a revolution in communications had begun - a global revolution on all fronts. Pluto had entered Sagittarius.
Broad-minded Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, our solar system’s largest planet and is emblematic of things both expansive and expanding, such as travel; the exchange of culture, knowledge and ideas; language; philosophy; religion; law; and big government. Sagittarius is known for generosity and excessiveness, abundance and waste, optimism and wanton recklessness.
Powerful Pluto’s primary principle is that of transformation. It signifies energies and impulses that are often not consciously recognized or understood. Its concerns are, among other things, extremes, taboos, and fears, and it is by working through these that we purify, heal, and create ourselves anew. It is the continuous cycle of birth, life, death, and re-birth. Our lives are full of cyclical deaths and rebirths. As we evolve and grow we shed and re-constitute our individual belief systems.
Pluto’s energy affects not only living entities, but is operative in the birth, evolution and death of such forms as governments, economies, cultures, religions and institutions of all kinds. The transformation of our world wrought by the mighty, dynamic combination of Pluto and Sagittarius could not have been dreamt of twelve years ago. The great advances in telecommunications and computer technologies both enlarged, and at the same time paradoxically shrank our world. With astounding immediacy, we now can know and empathize with our fellow beings around the globe on a level heretofore nonexistent. The far reaches of the planet are rapidly seeming much less exotic and strange thanks to Sagittarius’ beneficent nature. On the other hand, we now find ourselves inextricably thrust into the midst of global conflicts and we find ourselves reeling from the collective pressures. Inadvertently, this intimate confrontation with Pluto in Sag’s darker side inflames and frightens us like never before.
In addition to these consequences, Pluto’s sojourn through Sagittarius has ushered many other phenomena into our collective consciousness and experience. In no particular order, these include:
In Business & Finance
Telemarketing • “Do-Not-Call” List • Dot.com Crash • Extreme Stock Market Fluctuations • Enron/World Comm/Tyco Scandals • Credit Card Abuse • Mortgage Crisis • Global Economic Interdependence • Indebtedness to Foreign Countries • Prevalence of Bankruptcies • Frivolous Lawsuits
In Government & Politics
9/11 • Iraq War • “Shock & Awe” • Homeland Security • Patriot Act • Extreme Political Ideologies • Election Fraud • FEMA Scandal • Maturing European Union • Ideologically-based Voting
In Religion & Spirituality
Extremism • Fanaticism • Terrorism • Alternative Spiritual Paths • Quest for Increasing Consciousness • Death of Pope John Paul • Pedophile Scandal within the Catholic Church
In Communications & Technology
Computers • Internet • youtube.com • Web-domain Squatting • Spyware • Phishing • Spam • Ipods • Napster • Unregulated Internet and Airwaves • Cell Phones • CD’s • Communications Satellite Technology • Satellite Radio
In Transportation & Energy
Renting Seats on the Space Shuttle • Private Space Travel • GPS devices • Popularity of SUV’s • Record-high Gasoline Prices • Development of Energy Alternatives • Hybrids
In the Environment
Global Warming/Climate Change • Hurricane Katrina • Tsunami • Increased Numbers of Natural Phenomena such as Floods and Forest Fires • Intense Competition for Energy Resources • Oil Spills
In Society, Culture & Education
Age of No-Accountability • Online Education • Home-schooling • Spanish as a Second Language • Political Correctness • Cyber-sex • Kiddie Porn • On-line Matchmaking • Increasing Interest in Death/Dying/Hospice • Immigration Issues • Increased Tolerance of Gender, Racial and Cultural Diversity and of Sexual Lifestyles • Open Discussion of Sexual Abuse • Public Fascination with Sociopaths • Increasing Invasions of Privacy • Fantasy Football • Proliferation of Gambling Casinos • Sports Corruption • Steroid/Human Growth Hormone Abuse • Overblown Sports Salaries • Burgeoning Popularity of NASCAR • Liposuction • Gastric Bypass • Botox
Why, you can just about let anything roll off of your back, if you’re following the Sagittarian myth of no consequences epitomized by the saying, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”
Pluto in Sagittarius has brought us the global village, increased information, wealth, fun and spirituality. On the other hand, it has also brought us dogmatism, polarization, a sense of entitlement, overindulgence, loss of common sense, and a flagrant flaunting of the Golden Rule on the other. Our world has benefited in innumerable ways during this transit. Nevertheless, the excesses of its shadow side have left us with a multitude of issues that need to be addressed at once.
What happens here, does stay here, and that’s exactly why we have to make sure it’s right. We can no longer ignore problems, and just wish they will go away. That’s how we got into this trouble in the first place.
Thomas Jefferson is rolling over in his grave! It’s time now to re-visit and re-vision the philosophy of our founding fathers, for their wisdom and ideals could inspire our making of the Next New World. Pluto in Capricorn’s time has come again.
Much of the change we’ve live through under Pluto in Sag was relatively easy (compared to some of Pluto’s other transits,) thanks to Sag’s rose-colored glasses and a Scarlett O’Hara, I’ll-worry-about-that-tomorrow attitude. We might have had some worries nibbling around the edges of our consciousness, but collectively, we’ve had a tendency to laze through those years, surfing the internet with our cell phones plastered to our ears, telling ourselves that the master controls are probably in the hands of somebody who knows what he’s doing - not.
Parallel to these avoidant, manic, and extravagant times, many of us began to experience the poignant realization that we had lost, or never had the grounding, meaning, fulfillment and sense of community that we’ve been needing in our lives. As Pluto finally edges toward Capricorn, we are also beginning to feel that it is time to get real, buckle down, clean up the messes and pay the bills that we’ve inherited from Pluto in Sagittarius.
In contrast to Sagittarius, Capricorn provides a strong antidote to Sagittarius’ ebullience and irresponsibility. As an earth sign ruled by Saturn, Capricorn has to do with the Earth itself, with structures both natural and manmade, including our institutions. It pertains not just to physical/material constructs, but to our mental constructs as well - to anything we think of as “real.”
By combining what we know about Pluto and Capricorn, we can readily see that the next sixteen years are going to require us to transmute those forms we normally think of as certain, solid, established and immutable into new entities that will better serve our species and planet as we enter the millennium of the Age of Aquarius.
It is instructive to once again reflect upon the last time Pluto journeyed through the sign of Capricorn. Beginning in 1762, this transit ushered conditions resulting in a decay of the power of the British and French monarchies that led to the tumultuous American and French revolutions. These vital times brought about a re-invention of the classical Greek conceptions of individual rights and democracy. Eighteenth-century world consciousness was transformed by these ideas, and by this vision of the New World. Thus did Pluto in Capricorn.
The future ramifications of Pluto’s imminent passage through the key sign of Capricorn cannot be overstated. We will be seriously challenged to cooperate with the primal forces of nature, to re-invent our institutions, to conceive of new belief systems, to take responsibility for ourselves, and to cooperate with our fellow Earthlings, if not out of love, at least out of an understanding for the concept of enlightened self-interest. Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of their planet!
M. Robin L’Antan offers this relevant comment:
Depressed? Of course we’re all depressed. We’ve been so quickly, violently, and
irreconcilably plucked from nature, from physical labor, from kinship and village
mentality, from every natural and primordial antidepressant. The further society
“progresses,” the grander the scale of imbalance. Just as fluoride is put in water to
prevent dental cavities, we’ll soon find government mandating Prozac in our water to
prevent mental cavities.
In lamenting what we have lost over the ages, D’Antan is describing the types of Pluto in Capricorn antidotes we must employ to manifest the highest energy of our Pluto in Capricorn times: Honoring and directing our attentions toward the healing of and healing by Mother Earth, toward the deepest intuitions of our bodies and souls, and toward our ancient wisdom traditions.
There is no way to predict specific outcomes, but we know that the times will be consistent with Pluto in Capricorn’s archetype: austere and difficult, challenging the validity, soundness, and worthiness of our mindsets and societal structures.
Our initiative, consciousness, and purity of intent can greatly influence the outcome of this era which could manifest in the following positive or negative ways:
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