AstroDispatch.com

There is nothing finer than properly aged Parmesan cheese freshly cut from the wheel. I’m impressed with cheese-making and the Saturnine patience required to wait for the right time for consumption in order to get the full, rich, and satisfying flavor. I’m reminded of this in terms of this country and her first Pluto return now underway. It will take 16 years, which is really not much time at all, but more than this fast paced population normally likes to wait for results.

“The great task before our Founders that day was putting into practice the ideal that government could simultaneously serve liberty and advance the common good. For Alexander Hamilton, the young Secretary of the Treasury, that task was bound to the vigor of the American economy. Hamilton had a strong belief in the power of the market. But he balanced that belief with the conviction that human enterprise ‘may be beneficially stimulated by prudent aids and encouragements on the part of the government.’ Government, he believed, had an important role to play in advancing our common prosperity. So he nationalized the state Revolutionary War debts, weaving together the economies of the states and creating an American system of credit and capital markets. And he encouraged manufacturing and infrastructure, so products could be moved to market.

Hamilton met fierce opposition from Thomas Jefferson, who worried that this brand of capitalism would favor the interests of the few over the many. Jefferson preferred an agrarian economy because he believed that it would give individual landowners freedom, and that this freedom would nurture our democratic institutions.

In the more than two centuries since then, we have struggled to balance the same forces that confronted Hamilton and Jefferson – self-interest and community; markets and democracy; the concentration of wealth and power, and the necessity of transparency and opportunity for every citizen.”

This is an excerpt from Barack Obama’s excellent speech addressing Wall Street at Cooper Union in March, 2008. He articulated a broad vision for economic repair in America and, of course, everyone knows how necessary that is now. I think we’re preparing to revisit our philosophical roots with this return in order to understand how we went so far astray in mixing business with government and what we can do to remedy the failure and bring the nation to economic health.

The business entrapments of the government have gone into deeply destructive territory and the cast of characters who led the development are still in power and have been re-installed in the new administration to start it off. There is no reason to shy away from the realization that many of these people do not have our interests in mind. It looks terrible to see the same multinationalist war profiteering crowd continue as is. The less pretense the better. But I think this is a necessary step in the overhaul destined with Pluto. Obama has no choice right now - he seems uncomfortable with the reality - still the process cannot be shortchanged. The forces of reform need the status quo there to work with. So they are temporarily back in. The same godawful bunch. I don’t really care to analyze them or make excuses, or learn to love them. I don’t and won’t. I simply want to apply my basic metaphysical overview.

The establishment is established for the moment with the first of the three Saturn-Uranus oppositions. I wrote earlier how the next two are going to diminish their strangling hold. Then comes Uranus in Aries to cause them more trouble than they know. Political decisions cannot be made entirely with profit for the rich in mind and that hard lesson will eventually be learned by the time Pluto returns.

I’ve mentioned many times the conjunction of Obama’s Saturn and USA Pluto trine Neptune and the president’s Mars, both in Virgo. Another positive factor in the return is the trine to Uranus in Taurus all through the process. Another interesting one is Saturn in Aquarius for most of it. The repeating theme is phenomenal starting with the exact opposition at the election. The blending of conservatism and change, old structure and new, and the ruling elite and the commoners, is so prevalent in the upcoming years that there is no way a solution can be avoided, in my opinion. Bang enough times and the door opens one way or another.

So the patience of a fine cheese-maker can be used for anyone anxious to have an improved country. Ups and downs, and sideways, can be expected in the arduous process of growing up, but the appearance of a leader interested in combining history, present, and future in helping shape good policy, along with some favorable cosmic configurations, tells me that progress is possible, especially if truly desired. Proper aging takes time.

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