0001 Does astrology begin with the first singularity?
The first singularity potentiates civilization, by opening the door to unconstrained labor and social specialization.
Astrologists exemplify a certain type of specialization.
0002 How does astrology work?
Astrology offers a primary causality, associated to the celestial realm, as a way to appreciate the secondary causality of our mundane realm.
0003 In sum, astrology provides context and potential to events that we experience in the here and now.
Figure 01
0004 Yes, this structure parallels the primary and secondary causalities appearing in scholastic philosophy.Primary and secondary causes are discussed in Comments on Fr. Thomas White’s Essay (2019) “Thomism for the New Evangelization”.
0005 The normal context3 and the potential1 for astrology2 depend on another actuality2, consisting of what we see in the celestial spheres, the motions of the sun, moon, planets, constellations and other stars.
This gives rise to the astrologer’s vision, where a reading of celestial events1b expresses the potential1b of celestial arrangements, transits and so on2a.
Figure 02
0007 Now, there are two actualities. On the content level, there are celestial arrangements. On the situation level, there are various civilizational events, including personal dramas.
There is no apparent material or instrumental causality connecting the two, even though the sun, the moon, and the planets have gravitational influence. The sun also determines space weather. Plus, the sun orbits the galactic center.
The tradition of astrology offers final and formal causes, cobbled together over time through correlations between planetary motions and mundane events.
0008 The discovery of planets beyond human sight contributes to modern astrology. An entirely new branch of astrology looks at historic events and trends in relation to the motions of the outer planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and now, Erin. This branch of astrology considers civilizations as beings.
0009 Conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn, the outermost visible planets, occur in a every 20 years. One lifetime may see 4 conjunctions.
However, the pattern extends beyond one lifetime. The conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn occur in one type of sign for around 200 years. The typology of signs is earth, air, fire and water. So, every 800 years, the cycle completes.
The last conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn occurred in an earth sign. The 2020 conjunction takes place in an air sign, Aquarius.
0010 The Jupiter-Saturn cycle of 800 years, belongs to both ancient and modern astrology.The recent Saturn-Pluto conjunction, in January of 2020, belongs to modern astrology.
0011 In April 2020, I posted a series of blogs about the Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn, with Jupiter co-present (but not in conjunction). This celestial event in January, 2020, marks the start of one of the most bizarre plagues of modern medical history. Even though the novel coronavirus from 2019, has a fatality rate of less than 5% for people over 75 years old (and for people with co-morbidities, including asthma), the responses of governments throughout the world has been amazing.
Rather than protecting old folks, health-care bureaucrats locked down entire populations.
0012 How did the crisis start?
The novel coronavirus initially spread after the City of Wuhan held a huge banquet commemorating the upcoming lunar New Year, the Year of the Rat. Already, the easily transmitted RNA-based virus had infected many. This was its opportunity. When Wuhan’s residents returned to their native homes for the Lunar New Year, the disease spread throughout China. Also, the disease passed through international air terminals to the rest of the world.
0013 This mundane event coincides with the Saturn-Pluto conjunction. Capricorn is the sign of government and organization. Saturn is the planet of time (as in, ‘your time is up’ or ‘your time has come’). Pluto is the sign of the underworld.
Is it any coincidence that health-care experts come out and declare this novel coronavirus to be a grave disease?
Here is a picture.
Figure 03
0014 As discussed in my blogs in April, 2020, the imagery of the sign of Capricorn touches base with the first singularity.Thus, the conjunction of Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn resonates with the dawn of astrology, as a specialization within our current living world.
0015 Does Aquarius touch base with the first singularity?
Capricorn is half-goat and half-fish, which corresponds to the dual earth-water origin of the Ubaid culture, 7821 years ago.
The Greeks do not capture this image with their story of Pan being caught in an alternate chimerism.
0016 Neither do the Greeks capture the nature of how Aquarius resonates with the origin of astrology within our current Lebenswelt.
Ganymede is a youth so handsome that he is taken up to be the cupbearer for the Greek gods. So Aquarius is symbolized by a youth pouring water from a jug onto earth.
0017 Ah, it turns out that in Babylon, the god Ea carries an overflowing vase of water. This is the same Ea that is associated with both land and sea in Capricorn. And, this is the same Ea that is associated with the primordial waters.
0018 So, bearing jugs of water for the gods?
In one Mesopotamian origin myth, humans are created in order to do the work that the gods were tired of doing.
Is that what is in store for the next 200 years?
0019 Against this speculation, the sign of Aquarius is an air sign, rather than an earth or a water sign. So, where does Ea fit in with the creation of the air.
What does pouring water have to do with giving birth?
In one ancient Mesopotamian myth, Enlil, the god of the air, is born from the union of Aku, the sky, and Ea, the water.
0020 Ah, that is more like it.
Aquarius touches base with the birth of unconstrained social complexity. Unconstrained social complexity has the character of the weather, the air, the storm and the wind. There is no telling how the spirit moves. But, drop a coin into an astrologer’s hand and you may hear how the sun, the moon, the planets and the constellations put your turbulence into a celestial perspective and divinized opportunities.
0021 So, the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, in the sign of Aquarius, in December 2020, also resonates with the start of our current Lebenswelt. Enlil is born again.
In the last two blogs, I discuss a contemporary gift, from modern magi to Christian newborns, in the parallel relational construction of astrology and the Thomist’s insight into primary and secondary causation.
Here is a picture of the association of primary and secondary causation with the category-based nested form.
Figure 1
For astrologers, the superlunary sphere parallels primary causation. The sublunary plane matches secondary causation.
Here is how that looks.
Figure 2
My example entails a celestial event on January 20, 2020, the conjunction of Saturn and Pluto at the edge of the constellation of Capricorn, teetering into Aquarius.
Saturn is a massive planet. It is visible to the unaided eye. Ancient astrologers tracked this “roving star”.
Pluto is a dwarf planet, invisible to the naked eye. It is 0.2% the volume of Earth. Tiny Pluto is discovered in 1931, during search of the Knieper Belt, inspired by a perceived incongruity in the orbit of Neptune.
The year of discovery stands between the two great Battels of the Enlightenment gods, the naïve battle among the Mercantilist gods (1914-1918) and the hot battle among the Fraternal Ideologies (1939-1945). What better time to discover a distant invisible roving star and label it with the name of the pagan god of the underworld?
Pluto seems large at first. Improved measurements reduce its size. More dwarf planets have been found. Eris, discovered in 2005, is slightly larger than Pluto.
So, why would a modern astrologer worry about Pluto?
Why not only follow the visible planets tracked by our ancestors?
The periodicity of Saturn is a little over 28 years. Many modern humans live to see two full orbits. This short periodicity may capture the psychology of the mundane world, but not the sociology. Sociology requires longer periodicities. Pluto’s circuit of 248 years fits the bill, as do the legitimate planets of Uranus (discovered in 1781, 84-year orbit) and Neptune (discovered in 1846, 165-year orbit).
What does this imply?
The addition of unseen, distant planets with multi-generational periodicities offer modern astrologers the long periods useful for sociological readings.
Now, I return to the nested form for the conjunction of Pluto and Saturn in the constellation, Capricorn. The Wuhan plague starts right before the inauguration of this year of the rat.
Both the mundane event and the celestial conjunction are real. An actual event2 occurs on Earth. A potentiating event1occurs in the heavens, within the normal context of Capricorn3.
However, the conjunction between Saturn and Pluto is also actual2.
Is there a way to configure the category-based nested form in order to account for the realness of the celestial event?
Yes. One way follows Peirce’s secondness. Secondness consists of two contiguous real elements. The nomenclature is one real element [contiguity] other real element. For example, I could write, celestial event [contiguity] mundane event. However, there is no material or instrumental causality between these two real elements. So, this route is blocked.
Another way is to construct two category-based nested forms and hierarchically arrange them. One nested form enters a situation level (corresponding to actuality). The other nested form enters a content level (corresponding to potential).
The relation between situationb and contenta is the same as between actuality2 and potential1. Yet, the relation occurs between nested forms, rather than elements with a single nested. The qualifier “virtual” (meaning, “in virtue”) denotes the distinction. Situationbvirtually emerges from (and situates) contenta.
In sum, the actuality in the celestial sphere2a may be distinctly separated from the mundane plane2a through a two-level interscope, as described in A Primer on Sensible and Social Construction.
Here is how that looks.
According to this sensible (two-level) construction, the mundane plane2b virtually emerges from (and situates) the celestial sphere2a.
Ironically, this relational structure also applies to both genetics and natural selection, as demonstrated in Comments on Dennis Venema and Scot McKnight’s Book (2017) Adam and the Genome, as well as Speculations on Thomism and Evolution.
Notable, for both genetics and natural selection, the content levela is relatively independent of the situation levelb and contains a potential1b exploited by the situation levelb. For astrology, the situation levelb places the content levela within a mythic framework1b that is tested by the congruence between actuality2b and potential1b, in the normal context of astrology3b.
The fall of Wuhan2b passes the test and addresses the question, “How much potential does the miniscule Pluto have?”
But there is more.
The celestial drama of Pluto, Saturn and Jupiter entering into Capricorn2a can be read in light of events on earth2b.
Pluto enters into the constellation of Capricorn on November, 2008, during a world-wide financial crisis. Easy-finance mortgages, packaged in the USA, are sold throughout the world. When the bubble bursts, powerful Wall Street companies swoon.
Central banks save the day by propping up financial firms. In the following years, debt levels rise, extraordinarily, surpassing the debts of 2008.
Now, in early 2020, dozens of economic bubbles are ready to pop.
In 2008, the H1N1 virus jumps to humans in Mexico. In 2009, the so-called “swine flu” produces a small panic.
Meanwhile, in 2007, Chinese and American scientists collaborate on research into the SARS virus, which swept through Asia four years earlier. They publish detailed studies of bat-associated coronaviruses. This work is continued by scientists at the Wuhan Virology Institute, with subsequent publications, even to the unfortunate outbreak.
All it takes is a small tear in a bio-protective suit to release a genetically modified virus into the populace.
Pluto is a tiny player. Yet, events2b in the fields of finance and virology readily play into the image of a minute celestial being, fully capable of exerting its influence within each constellation2a. Pluto is a sign of death and renewal. Capricorn is associated with sovereign power and political order.
In contrast to dwarf planet Pluto, Saturn is massive. Saturn enters the constellation of Capricorn in December 2017.
At the time, in the USA, President Donald Trump finishes the first year of his term. National politics is rent by (false) corporate media narrative explaining why Hillary Clinton loses the 2016 election. The (fraudulently initiated) Mueller investigation offers promise for revenge. (Innocent) General Michael Flynn (under tainted legal counsel) pleads guilty to lying to the FBI. Republican candidate, Roy Moore, loses a senate bid in Alabama under the weight of (numerous, manufactured and media-driven) accusations (for sexual misbehavior 30 years prior). Q posts on the dark web for the first time (and is later vilified and ignored by corporate media). A foot of snow falls in Georgia. The city of Atlanta is paralyzed. Facebook admits censorship.
Worldwide, Britain triggers article 50 of the EU constitution. Mohammad Bin Salman becomes heir to the Saudi throne. The nineteenth congress of the Chinese Communist Party names Xi Jinping to a second five-year term, then ends without naming a successor.
Saturn is all about time. Time reveals all things. Already, in the first quarter of 2020, the American news of 2017 is shown to be deceptive (see parentheses above). World news of late 2017 is similarly qualified as Saturn passes through Capricorn.
Jupiter enters Capricorn in December 2019. It will leave December 2020, after Saturn and Pluto are no longer in retrograde. The mythic attributes of Pluto, Saturn and Jupiter entangle. The first complete conjunction occurs January 12, 2020. Pluto leverages the weight of Saturn in a mythic story1b, telling of the fall of Wuhan and the spread of a novel coronavirus2b. The mundane plane1b resonates with the celestial sphere2a.
What lesson can I draw?
The story, told above, addresses history and sociology. Pluto’s advantage comes from its extraordinarily long periodicity. It lingers within each constellation. It moves slowly, just like sociological transformations. Seven visible planets go into conjunction with Pluto as it passes through each constellation. Saturn goes into conjunction with Pluto every 33 years.
The last time Pluto passes through Capricorn is from 1762 to 1779, during the corruption of Louis XV in France. King George III rules Britain and milks her colonies. Frederick II serves Prussia, winning battles and promoting Enlightenment ideas. Maria Theresa, daughter of Charles III, rules the Hapsburg Empire. Catherine the Great captures the throne in Russia. The Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth suffers losses in 1772. Mohammad Karim Khan Zand rules Persia, ending 40 years of war. The Ottoman Empire suffers peace and militarily falls behind its European rivals.
1762 through 1779 marks a calm before the storms of the French revolution and the American insurrection. Germany, Russia and Austria partition Poland. The Enlightenment reformer, Joseph II, follows Maria Theresa. Persia enters civil war after the death of its regent.
In many ways, the current transit of Pluto recapitulates its previous passage through Capricorn. The deaths and rebirths of many political-religious unions are already underway, include those political systems that claim to be “not religious”.
The long periodicities of Pluto, Neptune and Uranus offer modern astrologers a vantage not available to ancient astrologers. Long periodicities allow the contemplation of a sociological spiral through history. The ancient astrologers thought that the mundane world lives within celestial cycles. Now, modern astrologers imagine a spiral, where celestial cycles are superimposed on an unfolding that transcends the rhythms of the heavens.
The wise men in the gospel of Matthews catch a glimpse of this theodrama, when they lay their gifts before an infant king. They follow the stars. Look what happens. Surely, they did not anticipate…
Astrology expresses the same relational structure as genetics and natural selection. Yet, it operates to bring the mundane plane into mythical union with the celestial sphere.
Astrology also expresses the same relational structure as primary and secondary causation, offering an intimation (or proof) on the actuality of God.
Just as, in astrology, the motions of the celestial bodies2a are independent of events on the earthly plane2b, yet are situated by the mundane1b, the actuality of God2a stands independent of primary3b,1b and secondary2b causalities, yet is situated by themb.
The primary causalities of the Divine Will3b and the Divine Presence1b do not physically move. Secondary causalities2b, exhibited by creatures, facilitate bodily motion. The actuality of God2a gives rise to the unmoved (Divine Presence1b) Mover (Divine Will3b), just as a celestial actuality2a underlies the zodiac’s constellation3b and the astrologer’s reading1b.
This implies that, just as the planets move before stationary luminaries in the celestial actuality2a, the actuality of Godmoves before the actuality of God within the Divine Realness2a.
These parallels are gifts, from the astrologer, to the modern scholastic.
According to the gospel of Matthew, after Jesus is born, wise men arrive the East, following a “star”. Of course, the term, “star”, must be broadly construed, pertaining to the superlunary domes, as opposed to the sublunary planes. The motions of superlunary beings represent ‘something’ to the magi, corresponding to ‘something’ in their sublunary situation.
They read the “star” as a sign ofa birth of a king.
The magi are “magical” is so far as this: There is no direct cause whereby a divine superlunary being activates, moves, arranges or manipulates ‘something’ in our sublunary realm. Yet, causation appears to be present.
In Comments on Fr. Thomas White’s Essay (2019), “Thomism and the New Evangelization”, available at smashwords.com, one finds a parallel with primary and secondary causation. Primary causation entails God’s Will and Presence. Secondary causation pertains to God’s creatures. Creatures exhibit secondary causation, without compromising the primacy of God.
The “magic” at the heart of modern and premodern astrology re-articulates a foundational distinction in the tradition of Thomas Aquinas.
The gospels tell of magi, astrologers from the East, following a star (or maybe a planetary alignment). Today, a similar phenomenon occurs. Starting at the end of 2019, Saturn and Pluto enter conjunction in the constellation Capricorn. Then, Jupiter enters the same constellation, coming close to Pluto later in 2020. Astrologers watch wide-eyed.
Imagine the possibilities.
Saturn is the planet of civilizational systems. Time eats its own. The deep state runs, no matter who is in charge. Then, it runs out of Time.
Pluto is the planet of death and birth, destruction and renewal.
Jupiter is the god of sovereign and worldly order. His decrees are like bolts of lightning. He rules the pantheon. He enforces the laws.
Then, there is the constellation of Capricorn, the house of government.
Pictured as a goat, I imagine the constellation opening its doors to planners, workers, scientists and sensible thinkers. These people climb mountains, one step at a time.
But, the ancient image of Capricorn is far more curious. The constellation has the head and torso of a goat. It has the abdomen and tail of a fish. For this reason, it is called the “sea-goat”.
This is the representation that I would like to discuss.
The ancient Greeks have a playful explanation for Capricorn. Pan, already half-human and half-goat, finds himself in a tough spot. Other gods transform into animals in order to escape the predicament. When Pan tries, oops, he turns into half-goat half-fish.
Even further back in time, the Sumerian civilization has a god, Ea, who brings the arts of civilization to humans. During the day, he comes on land. Then, at night, he retires to the water. Does that sound chimeric?
Now, I make a dramatic play, by asking, “Could both Ea and Capricorn stand for some event that the ancients forget, yet remember in their divine images?”
An interesting answer comes from Razie Mah in An Archaeology of the Fall and The First Singularity and its Fairy Tale Trace.
The bi-modal god, Ea, and the sea-goat, Capricorn, stand for the formation of the Ubaid culture of southern Mesopotamia, around 7800 years ago. Over the next three thousand years, the Ubaid becomes the Uruk and the Uruk becomes the Sumerian civilization.
So, how is the Ubaid culture both on land and in sea? How is it half-goat and half-fish?
The Sumerian language provides a clue. It is a linguistic isolate. It does not belong to any family of languages.
Why is this so?
It is a creole. A creole forms when two disparate cultures are thrown together. Trying to get along, they produce pidgin, pieces of language, that are sown together into a new language by later generations. A creole fits the image of a chimera.
How did this happen?
During the Developed Neolithic, say nine or ten thousand years ago, the Persian Gulf is dry land. A wide river valley holds a narrow gorge, carrying the flows of the Tigris, Euphrates and other rivers. Two separate Mesolithic cultures settle the two habitats. One comes from northern Mesopotamia. These folks are farmers and stockbreeders. They settle the valley. Here is the goat. The other comes along the coast, probably from the East. These folks have reed boats and live off the marsh. They settle the gorge. Here is the fish.
Around eight thousand years ago, the ice age ends and the current interglacial begins. The sea levels slowly and powerfully rise. Sea water fills the gorge, then submerges the surrounding broad valley. These two cultures are thrown together. Each culture loses its hand-speech talk. The resulting creole, Sumerian, is the world’s first speech-alone language.
Yes, the Ubaid emerges from both land and sea with a new way of talking, speech-alone. All their Neolithic and Epipaleolithic neighbors still talk with a combination of manual-brachial gesture and speech (that is, hand-speech talk). The semiotic differences between speech-alone talk and hand-speech talk are huge. Speech-alone talk potentiates civilization in southern Mesopotamia. Speech-alone talk spreads on the wings of mimicry to adjacent hand-speech talking cultures, then flies to all corners of the Earth, seeding unconstrained social complexity along the way.
Our current Lebenswelt is not the same as the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.
Two gods stand at the threshold. One dwells in Sumerian myth. The other lingers in the heavens.
The end writes the beginning. The beginning writes the end.
Todays’ astrologers watch as Saturn and Pluto come together, then Jupiter and Pluto, as well. They join in the House of Capricorn. What do the heavens portend? Astrologers strain to imagine the possibilities. Here, is another one to consider. Capricorn resonates with the first singularity, the potentiation of all civilizations. In this constellation, the planets align.
