
Well it’s supposed to be that season, though with the current thickness and intensity prevailing in many areas of community and inter-community relations the world over, things feel very far from peaceful.
Astrologically, the conjunction of the Sun, Jupiter, Mercury and Pluto at the Galactic centre, which was at its closest December 15 through 21 just as Saturn was stationing to turn retrograde on the 19th, made this something of a tipping point in relation to negotiations between different thought systems. With conscious awareness (Sun), thought systems/communication (Mercury) and destiny/the big picture (Jupiter) aligned with the planet of transformation (Pluto) and insight into the fundamental nature of things (Galactic centre), the opportunity arose to re-evaluate the nature of the structure and boundaries (Saturn retrograde) of our notions of “reality”. And with this little party in broad opposition to a loose grouping of Mars (also retrograde), Hades and Kronos, the battle lines are clear: the foregoing are challenging the forces of will (Mars, in internalised mode) and authority (Kronos) which are mixing it with the forces of disintegration and primal “Dreamtime” reality (Hades). Hades trine to Apollon, the manifestation of the unfolding expression of universal laws and principles, also underlines the disintegration of outmoded ways of being in favour of greater harmony and balance, as does Saturn’s quintile aspect to Hades.
Beautiful, isn’t it?
Appropriate then that the closing days of the Bali climate conference strayed into this astrological territory. While producing nothing of any significance in terms of concrete measures, the drama nevertheless signified a massive symbolic victory for the forces of sense, compassion, reason and people power over human greed and hubris. Protocols were broken, David took on Goliath. In the face of the US delegation’s sabotaging of every initiative towards progress on CO2 emission targets, the delegate for Papua New Guinea, Kevin Conrad, stood up and said
“We seek your leadership. But if for some reason you are not willing to lead, leave it to the rest of us. Please get out of the way.”
to loud cheers from the assembly, while any continued attempts of the US delegation to block progress was treated to booing and hissing. As the leading article in the Independent of December 16 put it,
Last week was the week, and yesterday was the day, when the world finally showed that it was terminally fed up with the simple-minded, short-sighted and self-serving outlook of George Bush. The moment came not, as it well might have done, amid the dust and bloody debris of Iraq or the torture and state terrorism of Guantanamo Bay, but in Indonesia’s lush and lovely Island of the Gods. And, appropriately, it came over climate change – the issue on which the “toxic Texan” first showed that he was going to put his ideological instincts and oil-soaked obstinacy over the interests of the rest of the world and of future generations.
[…]
It is simply not done in international negotiations for one country to single out another for criticism; it’s the equivalent of calling someone a liar in the House of Commons. But from early last week other delegations were publicly, unprecedentedly and explicitly blaming the US for the lack of progress. Worse, they were beginning to point the finger at President Bush himself, suggesting that things would improve once he was gone. That is the kind of humiliation reserved for such international pariahs as Robert Mugabe and Saddam Hussein. But even they were never subjected to the treatment that America received yesterday morning. When it tried, yet again, to sabotage agreement the representatives of the other 187 governments broke into boos and hisses. When Papua New Guinea told the US to “get out of the way”, they cheered.
Meanwhile the hysterical attacks on homeopathy in the UK continue apace. This vocal minority of sceptics might be more plausible if they actually stuck to the facts of the matter, yet as we’ve seen, even supposedly august scierntific journals are not above publishing falsehoods in support of the editor’s own opinions on the matter (see last month’s posts). The facts of the matter are that the “hard” evidence is inconclusive, which means … ummm … it’s inconclusive: neither validating nor invalidating. However, such enthusiasm for distorting the evidence can only ultimately be seen for what it is. Hopefully the recent planetary alignment will provoke a breakthrough and lead to more reasoned and properly evidenced debate on the matter.
As it happened, December 19 saw the publication of an article in the Guardian by Rustum Roy entitled Homeophobia must not be tolerated, though to date, judging by the voluminous comments to the article, no Bali-style turning points have materialised.