The US Presidential Elections - A Perspective

If we know why something is happening or has happened it is easier to deal with. Now, I'm not saying that we aren't in for some tough times - I believe we are. It's like Betty Davis said in one of her movies "fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride."

First, what we have been witnessing is our collective shadow emerge for the world to see. The parts of us we either deny or stuff down into the sub conscious. Seeing our shadow is not an easy thing - it hurts. My Evolutionary Astrology mentor Steven Forrest wrote about this - this week in an eloquent way. Here is an excerpt:

"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, nostalgia for an extinct past, and an inability to adapt to change."

For those of you who are not familiar with Astrology terms - the planet Pluto handles issues related to death, dying and rebirth. He is the lord of the underworld which means the sub conscious. For anything to be reborn or regenerated, it must first go through the fires of purification. And, it's a good idea to know what is being purified. In our collective situation - it is our shadow. Capricorn is one of the twelve astrological signs and one of its attributes concerns culmination. The seeds we planted have been harvested and we reap our rewards. The saying "you reap what you sow" applies here.

So, what does this have to do with me, you say? You are doing your spiritual work, you are not prejudice and bigoted. You love your fellow man and contribute to charities, speak kind words. You couldn't possibly have a shadow with these traits. In this article I am referring to our collective consciousness not our individual consciousness. Each of us is a part of a whole. This brings me to my second point. What is our collective shadow?

There are a lot of disenfranchised people in our country and they thought they finally had someone who heard their cries. So they voiced their discontent with the way things are for them and voted. Most of us were surprised with the outcome of the election. I would suspect even the winner was in shock. I heard people saying "How can this be?" "What happened?" "It had to be rigged" "We need to get rid of the Electoral College." The truth is - according to the news, only about 50% of the population voted. So, what prevented the 50% who didn't vote from going to the polls?

Let's talk about our shadow. The shadow once seen - shows us what we have left to work on. Way back in 1776 we had a revolution to free ourselves from our British oppressor. The problem however is that we (collectively) couldn't see how we were being oppressive too. We had bigotry, hatred, racism, egotism, white supremacy, religious intolerance, gender discrimination, separation, greed and a host of other unbalanced traits. Over the past two centuries some of us worked hard to stamp out these issues. We went to sensitivity classes, embraced diversity, created affirmative action, passed laws to help the cause, and became politically correct. People died so that we could have freedoms that our ancestors didn't have. All of this is good and needed to be done.

The flip side of this were the people whose hearts didn't change - who are still apart of us. We either pushed them aside or ignored them because of their beliefs or they shut up - not voicing their opinion because it wasn't politically correct to do so. The feelings were still there, not healed. We all know what happens when feelings are buried. At some point they erupt and we all pay for it.

Our country does have a split personality as I read the other day in an article written by Astrologer Phillip Lindsay in Esoteric Astrologer. He believes we need personality integration. I agree. One side is fighting for the way things were and the other is fighting for equality on all fronts. What a lot of people don't realize is that we are on the cusp of a new age - the Aquarian Age, which will last more than 2000 years. If you look back in the history books to the cuspal period that heralded the Piscean age you will see similarities. Each age has a period of figuring out what it will be. We are at such a point. We are the ancestors that the future generations will talk about. We are laying the foundation of what this new age will be as our ancestors did for the prior age.

What people also don't realize is that we can't go back to the past, even if we wanted to. This is a fact demonstrated by our Nations current situation astrologically. Our Nation was born on July 4, 1776, which means we have a Cancer Sun. Remember my mentioning the planet Pluto and its meaning earlier? Well, transiting Pluto has been opposing our Nations Sun since January 2014 and this continues until this month - November 2016. (Transiting means the movement of planets in the sky.) When the planet of transformation opposes the Sun, the Sun must change. The Sun represents our ego or personality. We are no longer the same after such a transit. I've gone through this personally and I can tell you, I am not the same person as before the opposition. The purpose of such a transit (not everyone experiences this transit due to the orbit of Pluto) is to bring up from the sub conscious all the diseased parts of ourselves for healing.

P.S.: Our Nation is also preparing for its Pluto return in September 2022. This means that the Planet is coming back to the point when the Nation was created in 1776. I'll talk about this in next month's article. For now - Let's begin to discuss what we can do now to have right human relations. Because whether you believe it or not "we are ALL in the same frying pan." It is up to us to heal our Nation. It is up to us to reach across the barrier with our perceived opponent to begin a dialog. In astrology there is an aspect (the angle between two planets) called an opposition. To work positively with this aspect the individual must integrate the positive attributes of both planets. If the person doesn't do this - the parts of the person represented by both planets suffer. Which means the person is out of balance. We as a Nation are out of balance and we must integrate the healthy parts of each side of the opposition and heal the parts that are unhealthy. Only by doing this can we successfully mend our fractured Nation.





His Holiness The Dalai Lama: A Message of Spiritual Wisdom explains how the religious leader was first chosen in 1937 and provides an overview of his political and cultural history. It also celebrates the way he brings communities together through a message of peace and nonviolence.