Summer 2001 (continued feature article through Summer ‘02)

 by Karen Steen, Astrologer

(published August 9, 2001, before the terrorist attacks on America)

Reform structures of cognition, language, and communication to
align with an expanding collective experience.

This expanding collective experience corresponds to Pluto's travel through Sagittarius from 1995 – 2008, where it restructures perspective to include a greater reality.  This process applies to all levels of culture, from individual visions of self-actualization to social progress towards a global community; and, it characterizes all planetary transits with Pluto during these years (e.g. Spring 2001 Astro Info).

     This coming year will be intense as we collectively confront central issues of limited capital resources, relatively unlimited scientific and technical potentials, and the reality of a global community. Those of us personally affected by this transit will confront equally central issues in achieving our individual goals. How are our structures of thought/mental assumptions, language/vocabulary, and information/communication inadequate for our expanding collective experience?  What new ways of thinking and communicating are needed to constructively respond to unprecedented challenges?

The Crucible
     The challenge of this Saturn/Pluto opposition is essentially that of Pluto in Sagittarius applying to Saturn in Gemini. As the more distant and slower of the two planets, Pluto exerts its collective theme of expanded vision in Sagittarius onto Saturn/Gemini's structures of thought, language, and communication. For the basic astrology of this analysis, 'Basic Delineation' follows this article and gives the symbolic/empirical associations of Pluto, Sagittarius, Saturn, and Gemini, and historic events of their prior contacts.

     Pluto's mandate in Sagittarius is to transform perspective as the basis for collective progress; hence, expanded collective vision. Saturn's role in Gemini, while opposing Pluto, is to establish social structures of thought and communication that implement this expanded vision; thereby, the collective vision is made real.  Pluto is acting like a cosmic laser beam here, focusing the immanent future of an intimate and immediately linked global community, with commensurate resources, onto existing social structures of perception, thought, and communication.  Core truths of our expanding global perspective are now infusing the thought and language of our social institutions, common vernacular, and daily lives. As M. Kelly Hunter eloquently describes in "The Gemini/Sagittarius Polarity: Ways of Knowing" (The International Astrologer, Vol. XXX, #1), we must reinvent the language and ways in which we think and communicate to reflect our expanding reality.

     Saturn functions creatively when building and maintaining structures for social welfare; it functions destructively when building or defending structures for limited self-interests. Fear of losing what is no longer necessary is the pitfall of Saturn transits. Pluto creatively expresses as evolution and revitalization; when progress is resisted, it destructively expresses as devolution and disintegration. Opting for control rather than renewal is the pitfall of Pluto transits. The Saturn/Pluto opposition requires that we eliminate what is no longer necessary, integrate progressive options and innovations, and commit our resources to a viable future.

     The social structures now being submitted to this evolutionary process are the customs, institutions, and industries associated with Gemini/Sagittarius:

• Education - institutional reform and emerging models of teaching/learning and cognition/memory
• Civil, Environmental, and International Law - including international diplomacy and treaties
• E-commerce - the 'dot com' bust
• Telecommunications - industrywide selloff following recent product glut and market saturation
• Transportation and travel – hybrid automobiles and the International Space Station
• Ethics – medical, research, and health care.

     For indications of this transit in your personal life, look to where limitations in resources or opportunities – limitations that developed earlier this spring/summer - are challenging your security and long-term goals. In this area of your life, fear based, rigid, or outworn ways of thinking and communicating can be confronted. To assure progress toward your goals, your underlying perceptions and working perspective must be regenerated in line with your guiding truth and vision.  The areas of your birth chart ruled by Gemini and Sagittarius provide insight into the specific challenge and opportunity for you of this Saturn/Pluto opposition.

The Opportunity
   Perception, cognition, language, and communication are now evolving on a fast track, necessitated by pressing circumstances.   Our effectiveness in answering present challenges depends largely on cooperating with the opportunity indicated by the Saturn/Pluto opposition.

   Our perception - the information we select from the limitless offerings of our senses and intuition - must open beyond habitual patterns. We can reconstruct our cognitive/thought processes - the organization and meaning we give our perceptions - to include these additional perceptions and their interrelationships. Language – the symbols that mediate our perceived relationship to our environment - must evolve in tandem with our expanding paradigm to make it useable.  Individuals, institutions, and industries can then employ this language in customs, policies, and products. Upon this evolution of perception, cognition, language, and communication, ethics can also evolve as a basis of responsibility in our expanded reality.

   Restructure by eliminating what is no longer needed and incorporating elements of a greater reality – such is the nature of Saturn opposing Pluto. Clarify the vision. Hybridize what works best of the old and the new. Employ perspective, rather than control. Prioritize, rather than react. Release, rather than retrench. Consolidate, rather than disperse. And, commit resources anew. Some developments I expect to see in the coming year:

• New fields of study and educational models that combine established and innovative elements:
• Quantum mechanics, consciousness studies, and neurobiology
• Expert mentor/computer augmented learning models
• Policies to address 'racial profiling' that reflect deepened understanding of both community responsibility and Civil Rights
• Substantial growth of 'renewable energy' industries, especially wind-based and transportation:
• Wind farms
• Hybrid motor vehicles.
• Emergence of a stable, accountable e-commerce industry
• Substantial growth in telecommuting as an alternative to automobile commuting, business travel, and service industry activities
• Continuing global accords/agreements on health, ecology, warfare, and ethical issues
• Substantial growth in availability/use of e-mail and telecommunications by thus far under served population groups.

A Final Word...
     Many of the forefront social issues during this Saturn/Pluto opposition presage those we can expect when Pluto travels through Capricorn from 2008-2024. Historically, Pluto's transit of Capricorn correlates to momentous events and developments. Its most recent passage through Capricorn was 1762-1778; during that period, both the Industrial Revolution and the American Revolution began. We may regard this next year as a warm-up for pivotal events in the coming decade. 
     If you have birth planets/angles in the middle degrees of Gemini/Sagittarius or Virgo/Pisces, this transit indicates core decisions and developments toward actualizing your fullest potential and most meaningful goals. Your personal satisfaction with life in 5-7 years and beyond will be served by the decisions and growth you make now.

Copyright 2001, Karen Steen. All rights reserved.

Basic Delineation - the Saturn/Pluto Opposition (Summer 2001 Astro Info)
Saturn in Gemini:
     Saturn, mythical Lord of Time and karma, symbolizes structure and maturity. It is the principle of consensus reality and the school of life experience.  Saturn rules the passage of time, the formation of that which endures through time, and basic social structures. It is associated with limitations, consolidation, conservation, discipline, consequences, social customs, business, finance, authorities, and government. It functions creatively when building and maintaining structures for social good; it functions destructively when building or defending structures for limited self-interests.
     Gemini, asterism of the Twins, represents the first of three air/mental signs in the zodiac. It signifies the process of conscious awareness and communication with our immediate environment - perception, primary mental processes/learning, and language. It is associated with air and breathing; information, teaching and learning; reading, writing, and speech; the media, Internet, and communication industries; and, local travel, transportation, and commerce.
     Saturn's most recent prior transit through Gemini was from 1971-1974. In 1971, the 'Phonemate' was the first telephone answering machine to appear on the public market; the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for 'invention and development of the holographic method'; and, mandatory busing to achieve racial integration in American schools began. Also during this period, the Internet Protocol (IP) and File Transfer Protocol (FTP) were developed, both essential to what we now know as the World Wide Web.
     Saturn's current transit of Gemini began in 4/2001 and continues until 6/2003. President Bush is promoting his testing-based proposals for educational reform in the US.  Federal parental rating guidelines for TV are being released. Katherine Graham, socially powerful owner/publisher of the Washington Post since the 1960's, died. A conservative media Czar was elected Prime Minister of Italy. And along with the worldwide economic slowdown concentrated in information technology and e-business sectors, we see a continuing contraction in the telecommunication industry (a contraction that follows the product glut/market saturation reached during Jupiter's recent transit of Gemini from 7/2000-7/2001).

Pluto in Sagittarius
     Pluto, mythical God of the outer regions and the underworld, symbolizes transformation. It is the principle of evolution/devolution - inevitable, relentless, and intense, the force of regeneration, and the process of synergism.  Pluto rules all structures and processes that effect transformation and mediate evolution, including the individual soul and the collective consciousness of humanity. It is associated with extremes of size, power, and experience - genes, orgasm, birth/death; atoms, nuclear fusion, volcanic eruptions; elimination, revelation, redemption; terrorism, organized labor, global banking and finance. It creatively expresses as revitalization; it destructively expresses as annihilation.
     Sagittarius, asterism of the Archer/Centaur, represents the ninth sign in the zodiac and expanding perspective. It signifies broadened social experience and world view, distant travel in body and mind, and the understanding and vision gained from such expanded perspective.  It is associated with higher education, philosophy, ethics, law, religious ideals, and international travel, commerce, politics, and public health.
     Pluto's most recent prior transit through Sagittarius was from 1748-1762. Democracy as a philosophic concept and political reality emerged at this time, epitomized in the writings of Voltaire and Rousseau.  Europe's Seven Years War (French and Indian War in America) was fought simultaneously on three continents, establishing it as the first world war. Captain Cook thoroughly explored the Pacific Ocean for geographic and scientific purposes.  The first comprehensive modern encyclopedias were published, cataloging natural phenomena and the new age of science and technology.
     Pluto's current transit of Sagittarius began in 1995 and continues through 2008.   International collaboration on the first space station is underway. Globalization of trade and the movement against globalization of capitalism are both taking shape. The first worldwide (United Nations) conference on the AIDS epidemic was held earlier this year; and, policies to implement the International Treaty on Germ Warfare were recently agreed upon (except by the US!). The Human Genome Project is moving toward completion, and ethical concerns surrounding the use of stem cells and genetic cloning are priority political issues internationally.  In the US, a federal Bill of Patient's Rights continues in the making, and a federal office to oversee ethical compliance in human research protocols has been established.

Saturn Opposes Pluto 1965-1966
     Saturn's most recent prior opposition to Pluto was from 4/1965 - 2/1966 in Pisces/Virgo. Cultural Revolutions emerged in China (Mao's Cultural Revolution) and the US (beginning of the Viet Nam War Era). The US effectively exterminated the Communist Party in Indochina through covert violence.  Also in the US, State National Guards were federalized; President Lyndon Johnson implemented policies of his "Great Society"; Dr. Martin Luther King led the Marches for Civil Rights in Selma, Alabama; and the Voters Rights Act of 1965 was enacted.

Copyright 2001, Karen Steen. All rights reserved.

Return to Article Menu