Forecast for Wednesday 12 May 2010

Wednesday 12 May 2010

\Point of Poise/

I am not happy with Elena Kagan, Obama's choice for the Supreme Court. My reasons may be partly correct, partly incorrect or subjective, but I just am not happy with her. (She was chosen by the President while Mercury is retrograde, in other words, hardly progressive.)

My first thought (sorry, this is not my better self) was "Why do female Supreme Court justices have to be so ugly?" Not nice, but I doubt any of those ladies will read this report. Okay, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I am sure her family and friends find Ms. Kagan beautiful in her own way. She has Venus square Saturn in her birth-chart. So does Sonia Sotomayor. I doubt that either would win a beauty contest. Women with harsh aspects between Venus and Saturn usually feel they have a beauty problem throughout their lives. Or a charm problem. Yet they can be highly successful, and some of them even end up as movie stars. Oprah Winfrey is one who succeeded enormously, though I would not call her a glamorpuss. It is a good aspect for discipline and concentrated work. Often that gives the life-fulfillment other women get through beauty and charm. One might say the gods saddle some with this aspect in order to force them to turn their energies beyond the superficial. Men with the aspect may be more fortunate, since they are not expected to be glamorous in the same way (though men with a well-aspected Venus are indeed glamorous). Males with Venus square, opposed, or conjoined to Saturn include George Bush Sr., Richard Nixon, and Robert McNamara. You will note that all three were war-mongers. Justices of the Supreme Court are not paid to be nice people, either. They are dealing with issues in which people will be sentenced to life in prison or death or some lesser yet harsh punishment. Venus, the love-goddess, forced to confront Saturn has to be "tough love" if that is still really love, and perhaps it can be in some cases. I would guess one would find a great many police officers of either sex with this aspect. Some day statisticians will find this out, when they outgrow their inane prejudice against astrology.

All this is appropriate now because Venus has begun her hard aspect with Saturn (which happens on average four times a year), this time a square. It is in effect (by ten-degree orb) from May 10 through May 25. Elena Kagan was nominated on the first day of this period. She is not going to be a popular choice. Neither the Left nor the Right are happy with her. She is as popular as stale bread.

Perhaps the best statement of why this is so is the one of David Brooks in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/opinion/11brooks.html?hp . Quite amazingly, without knowing it Brooks has delineated one meaning of Pluto-in-Virgo, which is the position of Kagan's Pluto. She will be, if confirmed, the youngest justice on the Court and the only one with Pluto in Virgo, wherein that planet domiciled from June 1958 to October 1971. (Kagan's birthdate: April 28, 1960.) Most of the remaining justices have Pluto in Leo, unless they are over the age of 70 (then it would be Pluto in Cancer). Pluto has an amazing way of marking off the generations. Pluto-in-Leo people (August 1938 to June 1958) have strong convictions. Leo is the fixed fiery sign. It can be intensely ideological. This was the generation of the Vietnam War protesters. By contrast, the Pluto-in-Virgo generation is bland, conformist, scheming and . . . well, let David Brooks explain:

About a decade ago, one began to notice a profusion of Organization Kids at elite college campuses. These were bright students who had been formed by the meritocratic system placed in front of them. They had great grades, perfect teacher recommendations, broad extracurricular interests, admirable self-confidence and winning personalities.

If they had any flaw, it was that they often had a professional and strategic attitude toward life. They were not intellectual risk-takers. They regarded professors as bosses to be pleased rather than authorities to be challenged. As one admissions director told me at the time, they were prudential rather than poetic.

If you listen to people talk about Elena Kagan, it is striking how closely their descriptions hew to this personality type.

Yes, that is Pluto in Virgo! Prudential is one word for them. Strategic is another. If they regarded professors as bosses to be pleased, that is because Virgo is the sign of the servant. Toward professors or bosses they are prudential, subservient, and strategic. (There are other words for that, which kids used to hurl at each other in grade school.)

Brooks again (who, born August 11, 1961, is in the Pluto-in-Virgo generation--takes one to know one!--but has the sun, moon, Mercury and Uranus in Leo so is an honorary member of the Pluto-in-Leo generation, which may be why he was hired by the Times):

She does not seem to be one who leaps into a fray when the consequences might be unpredictable. “She was one of the most strategic people I’ve ever met, and that’s true across lots of aspects of her life,” John Palfrey, a Harvard law professor, told The Times. “She is very effective at playing her cards in every setting I’ve seen.”

Tom Goldstein, the publisher of the highly influential SCOTUSblog, has described Kagan as “extraordinarily — almost artistically — careful. I don’t know anyone who has had a conversation with her in which she expressed a personal conviction on a question of constitutional law in the past decade.”

This is self-explanatory if one understands at all the Virgo temperament. A whole generation has it! When they were walking the campus during the Reagan era I once, infuriated with their inability to take a stand against authority on anything, shouted at them "You are just robots for Reagan!" They looked at me with blank stares as if they had no comprehension of what I was saying. "What, we could be something other than robots?"

I am afraid that is what we are up against with Elena Kagan.

If anyone from that generation is reading this, I invite your comments and objections. Though you probably will not make them. Even though I am not your boss or professor and you have nothing to fear from me, you will maintain your cautionary silence.

Brooks: What we have is a person whose career has dovetailed with the incentives presented by the confirmation system, a system that punishes creativity and rewards caginess.

Those two words sum up the difference between the Pluto-in-Leo generation (Creative!) and the Pluto-in-Virgo generation (Cagey!).

Yes, this is a broad generalization. It can be modified by individual birth-charts. But note how true it is in the latest nominee for our highest Court.

I truly wonder what nominee will emerge a decade or two from now when the Pluto-in-Libra generation comes of age. The scales of justice prominently displayed on thousands of courthouses is their symbol.

As for Wednesday: Still we are in the waning moon, until late morning Thursday. Calm down, go slow, get rest. Stick with what is most comfortable or natural for you. Mercury turned direct last night (Tuesday evening) but is moving at a snail's pace; the Dark Hermetic Epoch continues. However, note what thoughts are coming to you on Tuesday and Wednesday. At Mercury's station (motionlessness), we are likely to get helpful intimations from super-mental intuition. You feel this is a turning point. Don't you? (I never hear from anybody! As if I were shouting at a wall.) Take your time, but note, or write down, the suggestions and ideas or tentative plans which come to you as if floating down from heaven.

{Wednesday} /Point of Poise\

Cosmic Piper