Pluto and the Shadow Side of Conservatism
November 9, 2016
My inbox has been full of requests for some comments about Trump’s victory last night. Rather than respond to each of you individually, I’m going to try to offer some perspectives here in this broader format. I say “try” because doing astrology well requires some degree of clarity and dispassion. Like many of you, I am finding that hard to muster at this point.
So much of this situation comes down to Pluto. It always reveals the Shadow-side of whatever it touches. During Plutonian periods, what we can’t “think out” we “act out.” Either way, uncomfortable truths are revealed. Pluto entered Capricorn in 2008 and remains there until 2023. There is nothing wrong with Capricorn, but it is a sign oriented to what we might call “conservative values.” Here it is profoundly important to remember that such values include integrity, loyalty, maturity, and many other good qualities. But there is a Shadow-side to everything. And since 2008, we have been seeing the Shadow-side of conservatism. That boils down to a fear of the future, a nostalgia for an extinct past, and an inability to adapt to change.
What we really see, hidden behind that lowest common denominator, is a vast spectrum of individual responses, with the lowest common denominator simply being most obvious. Many of us are responding in a positive way to Pluto in Capricorn, thinking “conservative” thoughts about the basis of our integrity, our values, and what in life we would die for if we had too.
Here’s some warmer comfort for those of you of progressive persuasion. Hillary Clinton did in fact win the popular vote. This horrible, undemocratic dinosaur we call the electoral college stole the election from her, as it did from Al Gore a few years ago. The reason I call that “warmer” comfort is simple: The American people are really not as bad as we look this morning.
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Trump's Victory
Steven Forrest is the author of several astrology books that have tremendously enhanced the astrological community. After forty years of living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Steven moved to the little town of Borrego Springs in the desert of southern California, where he entertains himself with hiking, gardening and making music. Visit his website at forrestastrology.com
As I said, Pluto is in Capricorn from 2008 to 2023. What makes it so intense now is that it is opposing America’s Sun. America was ‘born on the fourth of July,” in mid-Cancer. Pluto has been opposing our collective Sun since 2013 or so, and its station in late September was only a degree and a half away from the exact opposition. Bottom line, this Shadow-side of conservatism is right up our noses now. It will be softening over the next couple of years.
For those of you of progressive persuasion, here’s some cold comfort. Pluto will be in Aquarius for twenty years starting in 2023. I suspect we will see the Shadow-side of liberalism then. A strong reaction against these current conservative attitudes will arise, and the pendulum will swing in the opposite direction.
Most of the astrology I practice is with individuals. As individuals, people can transform themselves almost magically. I like being part of that process when I can. Collectively, in “world astrology,” there is always some evidence of the lowest common denominator. Personally, I think that is what we saw last night. But I think the collective response is actually more complex than that.
