In an age of anxiety, unsurety, and doubt it is not surprising, indeed is to be expected that there would arise a tendency to return, at least figuratively, to an era when affairs seemed less problematical and threatening. This is, on the surface a pretty safe avenue of retreat for it is well known that each successive level of individual and cultural development demands an increasingly evolved and sophisticated awareness with which to adequately deal with the constantly changing vistas of the future, while the past, and as such all that is hereditary, habit, and custom is crystallized, already formed, inert and unchangeable and thus secure Psychologically speaking, this backward looking tendency becomes especially acute in the common anxiety neuroses of the modern age where the individual becomes fixated at some previous level of development, longing for that unproblematical and dependent stage of early childhood, and ultimately the paradisiacal, intrauterine bliss of the womb, where suspended in the warmth of the enveloping amniotic fluids, one lived in union with the primordial life forces. This "Oedipal trauma" of Sigmund Freud has been applied to astrological symbology with real insight by Donald Bradley (Garth Allen) in his excellent treatise on the planetary influences, "Taking the Kid Glove Off Astrology". And with the following ruminations from thatseminal volume we come to further insights into these complex of meaning with has special relevance to this particular horoscope:
"No individual, no matter how full-blown and well integrated he becomes, ever really forgets those nine glorious months he spent in paradise. Consequently, much psychic energy...is spent in futile efforts to return to this state of sheer bliss, where everything is given without asking...(but) for all it paradisiacal qualities, there is always the serpent to reckon with in Eden...The Neptunian's distrust go others, his insistence that there must be a snake in the grass somewhere, sometimes reaches fantastic heights, to his own undoing...in the everyday world, apart from -isms and -osophies, those with afflicted Neptunes are identifiable by their tireless tendency toward name calling and calumny and the suspicions of conspiracy by others. to a Neptunian, apparently, everything must have an ulterior motive and anteing to which they object must be to work of the devil, or at least, be of sinister design...Aware that the serpent is a universal phallic symbol of a special sort, Carl Jung found it figurative of what he called the Dark Brother and the Shadow in the constitution of the human psyche. According to Jung, the formation of devils, monsters, and traitors arises from reflections of archetypes within the soul itself. The Neptune dominated soul actually spawns its own conspiratorial forces, it own destructive images, and projects them onto the world as "enemies"...It was in his discovery of the now notorious Oedipus complex that Freud solved the riddle of the serpent in the Garden. Deep within the human unconscious stirs the dim memory, and despairing realization that the matrix must be shared with the father...the implication to our astrological minds is that Neptune often represents not only the psychical incestuous wishes for the mother...but physical murderous wishes against the father...worth pondering is the fact that ambivalent love-hate abreactions toward paternal symbols...are the key characteristics of paranoid behavior...the mental disease paranoia itself.. is keyed directly to the motives of jealousy of the father and father-surrogates believed dogging the patients heels with sinister ends in mind."
One might well be wondering at this point what all of these abstruse speculations have to do with Mr. Reagan's horoscope. Yet, if we follow up the significant themes so far discussed, especially in reference to the influence of Neptune, a distinct Oedipal tendency can in this case be confirmed. Indeed, this man, elected at such a crucial juncture of American and world history, represents what might only be called a national Oedipal conflict, erupting in a collective paranoiac reaction, occasioned as it is in and individual illness by the pressures, stresses, and anxieties of social change and conflict. The disturbing re-emergence of McCarthyism and paranoia concerning the threat of communism along with the profusion of fundamentalist christian cults are all symptomatic of this psychic malaise which seems at this stage to have reached a chronic and threatening stage of development. It is not to difficult to see that this smug and silly afflatus of spiritual supremacy, thinly disguised as "patriotism", is but the over compensation of a national neurosis marked by feelings of frustration, impotence, inadequacy, and defeat. Rather than constructively and consciously deal with this problem, which involves admitting this state of affairs to oneself, the neurotic foible is to cast the blame on someone or something else. The stage is conveniently set for the program, the inquisition, the persecution, or war which will eradicate the problem once and for all.
It was Jack Kerouac who said that, "Woman has broken the moral backbone of America"
Admitting what this reflects of his personal life, this statement nonetheless is a profound insight into the national consciousness. And when we admit of America's spiritual intransigence, and the desperate lack of any kind of guiding moral ideal despite all protestations to the contrary, we can understand that what is lacking is the clear, sound, authoritative guidance of the masculine and solar principle embodied in the father. The symptoms of this condition are manifold; America's unprecedented material acquisitiveness, luxuriating, hoarding to itself the natural wealth of the planet, literally sucking the teat of the earth like some colossal overgrown infant (Eric Fromm wrote that the Oedipal psyche looked upon the earth itself as a gigantic breast at which it wished to be forever suckling). On the other hand, a stark deficiency is felt, the lack of a genuine spiritual identity and the profound absence of any defined cultural or philosophical ideal. As Georges Clemenceau acerbically expressed it: "America has gone from barbarism to degeneracy without the usual interim of civilization"
Here, the old psychological rule applies: If there is an exaggerated conscious attitude or practice, the unconscious holds the opposite and equal attitude. Thus as an overcompensation for this psychic emasculation, there appears the need for autocratic power, for brute force is always the final response of the impotent. As the very embodiment of this national gelding, we have our multi-pronged phallus force of nuclear weaponry, an arsenal of thousands of phallic idols aimed at the heart of Mother Russia in an international cosmic enactment of the primal incest wish. Closer to home, we have the closet doors swinging open in increasing numbers to reveal yet another male, "liberated" from the onerous responsibilities of fatherhood by an oversolicitous mother. At the same time America's penchant for that tent-house revivalist brand of fundamentalist christianity with its fire and brimstone, authoritarian, Jehovean paternalism is alike a confession of the lack of moral and spiritual guidance provided by the father. It is really no surprise that fundamentalists have pilloried faggotry as well as communism as the archest evil, being victims as they are of the reigning impotence. But such is the ergie of Neptune which guarantees that animosity is the result of two individuals or groups projecting into one another their darkest fears. This fear then, which produces such a militant sense of righteousness and intolerance , is merely these gnawing feelings of impotence, betrayal and rejection, and powerlessness. In its most basic sense, this is experienced sexually and contributes, on the one hand, toward an epidemic of sexual impotence, ejaculator praecox, frigidity, prudery, and religious hysteria; and on the other hand, to prurience, lasciviousness, bestiality, rape, sodomy, lesbianism, voyeurism, coprophilia. pornography and sadomasochism. The common factor is a suppression, warping and stunting of the procreative instincts, leading eventually to cruelty, sadism, force, and violence to awaken the extinguished vital urge. In extremes, this leads to homicidal inclinations and on the international scale to that ultimate confession of impotence, genocidal warfare.
With a consideration of these psychological complexities we penetrate still further into the enshrouding mists of Neptune, an influence which pervades, saturates, and thus conditions so much of our social life. At the same time we can understand how, in Ronald Reagan are distilled all of these diverse strains of this peculiar complex, at the basis of which is the longing for the mother as the manifestation of the Oedipal conflict. Thus in the modern cinema, in politics, in the subliminal techniques of modern advertising, the consistent feature is one of manipulation, seduction, and the subtle coercion of the masses. The characteristic dependence, fascination, bondage and parasitism of Neptune arises from a deeply felt sense of inferiority and failure attributable to the neurotic fixation of the mother. This fixity is then transferred to the state, the official church, or any institution, cult , or order from which source is expected the fanciful recapitulation of the all providing, all satisfying, all absorbing care of the mother archetype. In the process any possibility of individuality is necessarily forfeited. For only in the individual does the possibility of the most cherished ideal of human freedom in its deepest sense arise. Obviously this is not possible when one still lives in the shadow of bondage and enslavement to a country, ideology, national identity, or social control.
In this present society, which paradoxically prides itself at every turn with its great and inalienable freedom, the instance of psychological bondage and enslavement are manifold, beginning at birth with the pervasive dependence on the doctor and the hospital, where mother and child are separated and virtually imprisoned, subjected to humiliating, harmful, and unnecessary procedures. thus it is of no surprise that Neptune assumes eminences in the various mundane charts of the ill and infirm who fall victim to the predatory instincts and "suctorial impositions" of the medical community.
This victimization and exploitation reach a most subtle and insidious expression in the vulgar Hollywood and television scenarios, and in the mass circulation of pornography and madison avenue commercialism which itself it but a more subliminal form of that some pornography. Again, what is in evidence it the attempt to exploit the foibles and inferiorities of a gullible and suggestible populace, who as a result, are easily manipulated into "buying" some artificial and preconceived image of how one should look, what one should wear, etc..., necessitating the purchase of numerous useless, frivolous, and even harmful commodities. And what is the basis of this fascination? A crude form of sexual innuendo which exploits the deep-seated feelings of inadequacy mentioned above. It is no wonder then that these vulgar manipulators are always soliciting the services of the popular stars of cinema and sport, as well as media personalities in the merchandising of their dubious and contemptible wares. For it is to these "sex symbols" that so many individuals look as role models upon which to anchor their own rootless and drifting sense of self insufficiency. And thus the poor dupe in the local supermarket scan pick up a tube of deodorant or even a package of hot dogs with the unconscious subliminal message all the while conditioning him or her in the belief that this or that will "make him a man" or her a woman, and that her will be all the more successful, glamorous, popular, fulfilled, and above all, "sexy". And whats more is that our unsuspecting "consumer" will know that all this is true because his or her favorite television star said so. The same goes for the popular cinema, where a cheap and freewheeling kind of perennially adolescent sexuality as embodied in perpetually pubescent immature and supercilious personages is idealized. Actually this" image" is only the reflection of the emotionally and sexually repressed masses, exalted and enthroned at the box office in a gross compensation of a pitiful personal inadequacy.
Indeed, this is why one can discern in the modern film and increasingly on television itself, a
preoccupation with sadomasochism brutality, vice, perversion and bloodlust, otherwise know by those empty platitudes, "sex and violence". And of course, the widespread and contiguous phenomenon of pornography we have the bedrock of this degradation and putrefaction of the procreative instinct. Thus in the dark, anonymous comfort of the movie theater (how like the womb!), one can see enacted and identify with all those degraded, crapulous, and sordid impulses of the unconscious or, on the other hand, those sentimental and nostalgic rehashing of and insipid culture besotted with trivia. for it is a rule that wherever one has pornographic and sadomasochistic violence, that inanity, boredom and impotence reign, dressed up in a kind of shoddy glamour.
It was Wilhelm Reich, in his book "The Mass Psychology of Fascism", who recognized these
same collective impulses at work in the masses of Germany, which led ultimately to the rise of the institutionalized violence of the Nazi regime. The parallel thus established helps one to recognize the political and social repression have as their basis this warping and stunting of the sexual instinct and a subsequent attempt to reawaken the quashed urges through brutality and sadistic cruelty. From his Freudian standpoint, Reich attributed this to an incapacity for healthy orgasm, itself the consequence of the various forms of sexual fixation and repression existing on unconscious levels. Ultimately though, this dangerous inhibition must be traced to deeper levels of being of which the sexual nature is but the most immediate expression. For it is only in the psyche, and the spirit that the individual can attain a true awareness of his indivisible self, and thus liberate himself from the determining grounds of instinctual and hereditary predispositions and their inevitable expression in habitual and merely reactive behavior.It is only to these latter, representing the lower self, that the principalities and power as attain power over man. that is the reason that these powers (embodied in various political and social institutions) try at all costs to keep mankind stumbling and groping in the darkness and confusion of the lower impulses of his desire nature.
Descending from these speculations to the matter at hand, it can now be readily understood that Ronald Reagan embodies the distilled essence of the national proclivity for falsification, self deception, and delusion. Indeed his whole undistinguished career has been little more that a long process of grooming by the principalities he is enslaved to for this final act, this elaborate and illicit charade wherein are united all those various Neptunian strains of American social unreality; "business" and advertising, the Hollywood cinema, politics, fundamentalist pseudo-christianity etc... and their ultimate expression in the terror and collective insanity of militarism and institutionalized violence, at the root of which lies a debasement of the vital urges. In simple terms then, Reagan and the forces which he represents are anti-life and he must be considered an anti-man, or more succinctly a "doppelganger".
Such is the end product of the pervasive influence of Neptune in our society, a nation which put so much faith in the mere appearance of things; in cheap glamour and showmanship, in useless gadgetry, it its stars and idols in Hollywood, on Wall Street, and in Washington, and which invests so little faith in the human individual. Reagan is a penultimate expression of this frightful self deceit. Given the Neptunian's predilection for illusion, make-believe, chicanery, mystification, and downright falsity, we can discern that theta jolly, good old boy, always smiling, howdy partner, courageous image of Reagan is merely the substanceless phantom of celluloid which dissolves into nothingness one the projector lights flicker off and the film reels grind to a halt. And if we look behind the foot-lights, the glitter and the facade, we are treated tot quite a different reality, one which is indicated in one final planetary configuration involving Mars, Pluto and Neptune across the horizon.
Neptune and Pluto straddle the ascendant in Reagan's horoscope with Mars setting in Sagittarius drawing both of the larger planets into opposition. Mars is also in aspect to Saturn in Aries, thus bringing the idealistic yet cowardly nature of that placement into play with self righteous, crusading Mars in the constellation of the archer, bent on avenging the deeds of all malefactors. Of this Fagan says:
"Sagittarius delights in rewarding the righteous and in punishing the wicked and many of them are attracted to positions in courts of law... its vices are pride, ambition, hauteur, intolerance, snobbery, and the urge to separate the chosen from the bourgeois, attitudes that inevitably lead to oppression, war, and strife."
It is interesting to note that the trine between Mars and Saturn here conjoins the exact same degrees held by the Sun trine Moon and Jupiter in the map of Adolf Hitler, a man whose political philosophy partook of those same qualities to an extreme. Otherwise , Mars in this placement gives us the picture of the "universal policeman" which when combined with the hysteria of Neptune magnified by the hyper-idealism of the Aries Moon and the stern, exacting Sun in Capricorn reveals the implacable imposition of a rigid and autocratic ideology of militant coercion and fascist repression. Also interesting in this respect is the fact that Reagan's hero John Wayne had Mars in Sagittarius as well. His image as that implacable and fearless paladin, the upholder of a generation's cherished ideals of the absolute morality of "law and order" based on "racial purity" are certainly the hallmark signature of Sagittarius and Aries.
When we consider the relationship of Mars to Neptune and Pluto across the horizon, these foregoing tendencies are only affirmed and strengthened. Again we have the following from Cyril Fagan:
"Disciplinarians, dreaded fot their inexorable sternness have been born with Mars and Pluto in conjunction or opposition from the fore ground. Masochistic tendencies, or marked hysteria, may be in evidence should Neptune be in the foreground and configurated with Mars."
And here we have a clear and unmistakeable confirmation of our previous speculations. For it is apparent from this and other indications that beneath that affable, outgoing, apparently ingenuous, witty appearance there lies a much less appealing , yes, forbidding aggregation of unsavory qualities. Indeed, this disparity between appearance and reality so characteristic of image creating Neptune, is here to be seen in bold relief. Hard-heartedness, callousness, cruelty, sadism, and brutality are much in evidence along with a sordid and prurient sexual nature which finds its deepest pleasure in inflicting pain.
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Around the turn of the century, "Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show" was being received with wild enthusiasm in the European capitals. The immense popularity of this extravaganza along with dozens of other "wild west" troupes attest to the fascination with which Europeans have long regarded the settling of the American frontier. The novels of Karl May, romantic idealizations of the cowboy and indian sagas of the American west, amounted to 70 volumes with total sales near 30 million copies. The popularity of this western myth is in evidence to this day in West Germany, where exist numerous Western "bundts" under the auspices of which, wildest aficionados complete with elaborate sets and props, dress up as cowboys and indians and gamboling about in the Bavarian woods, relive that era of american history which has such great and lasting appeal. And of course we are all aware of that endless outpouring of "westerns" which have depicted in such roseate and heroic hues the grisly and horrible Indain Wars of the 19th century, which up until the time of the second World War, stood as one of the most striking examples of genocide in modern times. It was in this genre of film which Ronald Reagan played his own small part.
Adolf Hitler had more than a passing interest in the American west. In fact, the Fuerher was an
ardent admirer of the cowboy-gunslinger image, so much so, that in the post World War I days, he paraded around in wide brimmed hat, knee high black boots, equipped with riding crop much to the amusement of his contemporaries who never guessed that this ludicrous latter-day cowboy would someday lead Germany on its fatal path of world conquest. Later, during his rise of power, it is said that Hitler developed an obsession with the cinema and would screen two or three movies each evening in his luxurious apartment in the Prinzeregentenstrasse in Munich after tete á tete with a circle which was later to become the Nazi hierarchy. he was said to have a special fondness for John Wayne, and even later, during the early days of the the war, would run and re-run the movies of Wayne and other cowboy actors in his personal theater. This fascination was eventually superseded by an exclusive enthrallment with footage flown in daily from all fronts of a war which he regarded as his personal cinematic masterpiece.
It is also a widely known fact that Hitler modeled his infamous concentration camps on the Indian reservations of the American west. Added to this is the fact ha, in recent surveys in wet Germany, the prevalent view amongst school age children, many of whom had no knowledge that Hitler even existed, was that he was a kid of Jesse James, a romantic and daring outlaw who believed in that kind of justice that came out of the end of a six-shooter. With these admission we can witness some remarkable parallels between the Nazi-cowboy and the six gun diplomacy of his american counterpart, Ronald Reagan.
The parallel continues. It was Hitler, that master of deception and manipulation, who successfully baited his hooks with promises of restoring a lost German grandeur tarnished by the stinging humiliation of Versailles. Another retriever of lost greatness, Hitler was the victim of a brutal and sadistic father, a drunkard and rapist whose poisoned masculine image was ingrained in the Fuehrer form his earliest days. In contrast, he was, from all accounts a faithful and dutiful son, solicitous and caring for his mother, even nursing her in her old age and illness. Yet, the innate malignancy and sexual malice of this man need no recounting, and are certainly consistent with the psycho-sexual themes elucidated earlier.
The question which emerges from all of this is: are we condemned to repaet a past of which we have lost memory of as in Santayana's oft quoted maxim? In Reagan's insistence that there is nothing to be ashamed of in our involvement in Vietnam, on the contrary, in his assertion that this horrible genocidal war was a "noble cause" can we not discern this same fatal hubris which led Germany and the world to catastrophe and the abomination of Auschwitz? For the Neptunian always paints the brightest, most ideal, and exalted picture of the great day to come, only to have such castles in the air collapse and crumble into dust as time and Saturn prove the folly of all falsity. All this talk of national superiority and world historic destiny, and that shining "City on a Hill" of his pre-election speech is calculated to reassure a fearful and anxious populace which has mutely and helplessly watched their world begin slowly eroded away from within and without. Yet, understudying the duplicitous currents of Neptune as we do, such promises of unrivaled national destiny will undoubtedly prove the revers . And as is in the case of so many other political messiahs who enjoy a brief popularity before their utopias, grand schemes, and cities on hills crumble into dust, so will go Reagan, the living repository of so much delusion, false hope and hidden malice.