Monday, May 27, 2013The Peace Planet |
Peace is the absence of violence, a bit like spiritual enlightenment is the absence of clinging to concepts including the personal ego. Both require a certain ability to not act when prompted by the mind, a Taoist sort of ability to let the world flow in its own way without interference or judgment. Both require a kind of humility that acknowledges that "maybe I don't know best" and "maybe the contents of my mind are not the last word on what is good for the world". In the astrological universe, peace and freedom are not independent, self-contained energies. Uranus, often associated with freedom, is just as often oppressor as liberator (a topic I may address in the future). The exuberance of Jupiter is equally as energetic for the inhumane warmonger as for the champion of peace, if not more so. Peace and freedom are dependent energies. They are effects of the ability to refrain from action when action is inappropriate. They require an understanding of, and commitment to, the ethics of non-aggression. This ethical comprehension is the domain of the astrological Pallas. Like the other planets in astrology, Pallas wields an influence that is ever-present and invisible. When soldiers on both sides of WW1 spontaneously stopped fighting during the Christmas Truce of 1914, Pallas was semisquare Mercury, novile Sun, and in a stellium with the North Node. When JFK acted to end the Cuban Missile Crisis in favor of peace, Pallas was there forming aspects to half the planets and all the angles on his chart. Every hour that a classroom full of children or cinema full of moviegoers isn't gunned down by some teenager hopped-up on prescription psychiatric drugs; every unpoliced street corner in the world, which doesn't devolve into a Maoist orgy of bloodletting and robbery; every time a consensual agreement or exchange occurs without the use of threats or violence; every time you experience anger or upset and choose dialogue over force: Pallas is there. Another astrologer whose writing I cannot locate has observed a correlation between Pallas and the manufacture of weapons. In my own research I have found a correlation between martial artistry (turning one's body into a weapon) and Moon-Pallas connections. The association with Pallas and Athena with weaponry is not a contradiction. Defensive capability is a deterrent to violence. A homeowner with a gun is less likely to be victim of a home invasion. A woman or man with a gun is less likely to be be raped. It is no accident that peace activists and civil libertarians such as Martin Luther King Jr., Mohandas Gandhi, Ron Paul, Charlton Heston, and the Dalai Lama have all expressed strong support for the right of the people to bear arms. If you value anything in the world (like economic or social equality, "social justice", etc.) more than you value peace, you may eventually get that thing, but not peace. Peace, and Pallas, require a type of full commitment and surrender. They require the wisdom to understand that your opponent, however odious you find him or his philosophy, has all the same rights that you do. They require you to set aside your desires and your utopian dreams if those desires and dreams lead you to do evil. They require you to understand that believing that "the end justifies the means" only makes the world a meaner place. They ask you to have your sword nearby, but never to strike first. Neptune's devotees on the Left (and even some on the Right) would have us believe that the path to peace involves surrendering our weapons and our trust to the godlike State. History (recently through gun-grabbers Stalin, Hitler, and Mao) tell us that the State is not to be trusted, especially when it tries to disarm the people. It is Neptunian deception and not Athenian wisdom which recommends this path. A population disarmed is an easy target for State bullies -- disarmament of the people is an invitation to violence. Pallas Athena is both a formidable warrior and the horoscope's peacemaker. These aspects of the goddess of wisdom are not contradictory, but necessarily intertwined. Write to me at "alan" + "@" + "zot.net". Weblog Index Home |