Astrological Review mid May 2023

By David A. Wheatley
​​https://www.bridges.academy/astrologycorner.html

​There are many things in the public consciousness right now that concern us all. Probably close to or at the top is whether the US will default on its debt as June approaches. The circumstances are all in place for it to go either way in the political sphere and in the astrological sphere. But I think there are sufficient astrological circumstances to argue against there being a problem that politicians can’t resolve or at least avoid creating a crisis over the national debt now. The minimum we usually have grown to accept is that they postpone doing anything radical to a later date.
The political voices on the right are trying to use pressure over the possible default to extract concessions in the budget, a separate matter. Their problem is equating apples with oranges; paying the nation’s past due bills is not the same as arguing over future spending. This last point seems too rational to doubt, but being rational is not what it takes to win in politics.
​The game is played differently by either side, by two different sets of rules, and because they are different the conversation strains to work its way to a resolution. The only thing that compels them towards avoiding a crisis is the looming upcoming election season: self-interest. This sounds like a criticism, but self-interest to be honest is a shared trait. If only we could expand our definition of self to include others with whom we interdependently exist. 

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​However, all that aside, astrological influences are the patterns we unconsciously follow from our psyche; the national psyche as well as the personal psyche. We can’t help but to navigate along their paths in front of us.  They are strongly reinforced by the behavior and choices of everyone else in the world and we don’t individually run the place, life is a shared experience with shared influences good and bad. 

Pluto in Aquarius 

​Pluto famously finally left Capricorn in March, barely getting a toe in Aquarius. It’s been hovering at zero degrees and some minutes of that sign and now sits almost stationary as it prepares to retrograde back into Capricorn to complete all the things it stirred up while there over the past two decades. Pluto in Capricorn worked through big government, corporate power, religious power, powerful autocrats and self-declared influencers. Pluto in Aquarius is going to be very different; it will work with collectives. 

A shift from centralized power to shared power more specific to where it is needed.

​Over the coming years Pluto in Aquarius in my opinion will see the end of self-styled pyramid structured power and the construction of many voices where there had been one or a few. The negative is a possible lack of coordination and a need to innovate to make things happen better, and the positive is a variety of structures that are not all the same tailored to the regions in which they form. One size does not fit all. 

​This won’t happen because people want to share power; that goes against the nature of most of those who have power now. It comes about from the inefficiency and old world plodding of power brokers disconnected from the people they had power over. Aquarian air sign innovation is going to revolutionize without having a war, but it will come under the force of Pluto which is to say we hardly have a choice. We have to evolve or get wiped out. This might sound exciting to some, but it’s terrifying to those who prefer to live in a world where they are told what to do and things seldom change. 

​Circumstances will force us to adapt within the next two years as Pluto fully enters Aquarius. Some of the standby support systems in a crisis, for example FEMA, won’t be able to get where the problem is and local authorities will have to take matters into their own hands. On a social playing field, State governments are going the way of carving out their educational systems and many other social norms by legislative mandate different from existing Federal or national standards. The result will eventually be people will gravitate to live in States or Countries where the society is shaped more as they want their environment to be. This kind of shift will happen all over the world for better and for worse. Pluto has two decades to see how this works, or doesn’t work and needs refinement. 

​With that in mind, it might fit to entertain the idea that the US is about to have an economic crisis over its budget. The breakdown of the power structure by crippling the economic power of the national ID. As I said though, Pluto has two decades to work on this. I don’t think this will happen now. There are many people in a position to express this Pluto designed breakdown within the existing structure of power. They are willing to go over the cliff for the buzz of the free fall without worrying over the landing as if, like Wiley Coyote, they can dust themselves off and try again. I can see the US economic influence on world economies being forced to endure a change through crisis, but I don’t think it will at this time. 

Saturn brings some stark realities

​Saturn entered Pisces in March as Pluto barely and briefly entered Aquarius. Saturn will stay in Pisces, a sobering influence. Saturn brings some stark realities to where Neptune and recently Jupiter have been. Saturn definitely tends to take the rose-colored glasses off and asks for responsible address to problems which are in need of being exposed. It’s the moment in an individual’s life when they realize, "Damn, this doesn’t work, I do need to see a therapist."   

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​In the times prior to Saturn entering Aquarius, any preparations or advancements that could have been made to prepare for what the psyche knew was coming (Saturn in Pisces) pay dividends for those who meet their professional standards or even exceeded them. But for those who got side tracked or lazy, Saturn in Pisces is indeed when it’s time to go through the mess and attempt to sort it out. This is good for facing up to budgetary obligations on both sides, being realistic about having them or reducing them, and being realistic about meeting them. Saturn in Pisces isn’t about the fantasies, it’s about what is possible to do. 

New Start with the New Moon on May 19th

​The main reason why I think the US will pay its bills and end up in tough budget negotiations is because Jupiter enters Taurus mid-May AND Saturn is in Pisces. Might as well toss in Venus enters Cancer too, another attractive reason in the US chart as well as a general influence for everyone to feel optimistic and positive that we aren’t going off the cliff, not yet anyway. Taurus resonates with the Second house of material values, appreciation of the home as a nurturing healthy place. It generally favors financial affairs though one can be carried away with it, borrow to buy today and promise to pay on Tuesday but have trouble doing so later. Agreements can be made with Jupiter flying in to save us, though we have to count on Saturn to temper them with what’s really possible. Jupiter in transit now is going to sextile Saturn; they can work together now. Jupiter is going to be sextile transiting Venus as it enters Cancer, and this all feels pretty reassuring. A good group on the New Moon coming May 19th. A new start.

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​In the US chart, Jupiter is moving into the 5th House. This is a very positive placement for now. Jupiter inflates the intentions of heading in a celebratory direction, not a wake. It can be a little divorced from reality here in the US, which wouldn’t be out of character, and especially with Venus moving into Cancer which in the US chart is a seventh house rendezvous with natal Venus, Jupiter and the Sun. The New Moon on May 19th which follows two powerful eclipses in the prior month is trine (positively aspected) to transiting Pluto.

​All these conditions are temporary though, so the good feeling which can come from this period won’t last forever. For real, Pluto will back into Capricorn in June to finish up its business and be done with Capricorn in November by 2024. As with all the court cases hanging over Trump, the autocrats in the world will all face the firing squad of changing times. Big centralized power is going to either evolve into something more power-sharing or go away. For those who gravitate to big daddy government, I am sorry. We will need each other more, to work together under pressure. Something more resembling a socialist form of government is coming though not by choice, but because groups of people organize differently, regionally and locally, by necessity. 

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Pluto forces us by changing the environment, literally. 

Some people say Pluto is not even a planet, it’s a large asteroid. A planetoid. That’s fine, asteroids are significant. It isn’t about the physical size. In the psyche there is no physical, so physical size only has a value as a symbol of expression in the physical universe. As a major organ if you will of the psyche-body, Pluto is huge, bigger than Jupiter. We should measure the size of a planet and its influence by how slow it moves and Pluto is the slowest, excepting Planet Nine. When planets go stationary and then retrograde, they move at their slowest and therefore are at their most potent. As slow as it is all the time, Pluto is stationary and soon will retrograde back into Capricorn. In the next 18 months it will wrap up its two decades of work in Capricorn.  

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