Peace

Peace. Everyone claims desire for Peace. They want Peace as a final, end product. A Mass Produced Henry Ford kind of a Peace Product. Model T. Non-violence between societies. Peace of mind. Good Health. Prosperity so that Everyone can thrive. This is such a complex but such a simple thing to want at the same time, so much to read into a single word.

Look at how Peace fits into the Astrological Wheel. The Spiritual Lesson of Astrology is that everything happens in cycles; everything is just fucking spinning around; everything is in constant movement. When you get a bunch of planets and asteroids and Satellite Dishes and UFOs hovering over your head all day long, they exert some sort of pull. (Well, maybe not the UFOs, they're anti-gravity). Atoms spin around Nuclei in our cells. Children spin around their Parents in the Wal-Mart. The Moon spins around the Earth. The Earth the Sun. The Sun is apparently headed towards a Black Hole but before that happens the Poles will melt and shift and we'll all fall off or be buried in a volcano. But, something is also holding us together. And hopefully Noah is out there somewhere building his Ark all over again because it sounds like we're going to need it.

I'm very bitter this Christmas. I apologize for that. (I guess I'm apologizing to myself since no one reads this blog). Where's the Moon? I always forget to look these things up and usually it's so easy to explain things away this way. I don't have any Libra in my chart so I only get to fantasize about what it is. So, here goes.

Libra is the sign that most commonly represents Peace. That's such a farce. Mostly it represents Non-violence because it imbues an individual with Diplomatic skills. Either that, or it gives the individual the ability to rattle on and on pondering every aspect of a dispute until everybody else's butts hurt.

The appearance of Peace, the attempt to negotiate through Peace rather than kill others, that's Libra, it's probably the best the Human Race can come up with. Ghandi was a Libra Sun after all. But, words kill too. Even non-emotional words. Libra is only the 7th sign of 12 around the Zodiac. That's only halfway -- the Wheel is a Wheel and it's gonna keep spinning around even after it hits the 12th sign. And everyone has his own wheel, and every thing and every event and every country, every noun, every verb, every insect and plant in the world comes with its own Wheel. And with that its own set of consequences and interaction with other wheels. That makes for a lot of cogs for every wheel too.

Each sign is set to fix the problems and inadequacies of the sign before it. Once we make it to the 12th house, Pisces, the sign of full merging with the Universe, the Real Love that we all seek, the life cycle is completely destroyed and must re-birth through the power and energy of Aries, blind force. Aries is ruled by Mars, however, and Mars is the God of War. It rushes into situations without considering consequences. Libra tries to fix them through negotiations. Libra is actually more the reason for war than Aries. It's all that God Damned talkie talk. Problem with Libra is that it loses track of its own needs within the negotiations. It's a vain sign and finally everyone realizes that it simply wanted to people please in order to get what it wanted. Same old, same old. Send the negotiators in there, but the only ones who want to cooperate are the ones who are getting what they want.

What's really fancy about Libra is that it not only represents Peace more than the other signs, but it is followed by Scorpio. If Libra's words can't express the feelings (and Libra doesn't deal with emotion so there's a whole lot it can't express) then Scorpio rules Unspoken Words. Good Scorpios just present this as Society's Taboos and go ahead and fornicate under the table top at dinner with Aunt Gertrude still snoring in her chair. In the end, Unspoken Words do only an elite few any favors. Scorpio never represents peace. Pluto, Scorpio's ruler, is considered an upper octave of Mars energy. First there is Libra, Peace, Negotiations. Then there is Scorpio, Sex, Spying, Sabotage, Hidden Resentments, Selfish Motivations, Sabotage, all words forms that hiss. Still the Mars energy of only thinking about ones self, just understanding that one can get what one wants better if one is subversive. In a sense, Libra negotiations look good on the surface but they are very far from creating a state of Peace. Certainly, Scorpio can't seek Peace. There's a trend in astrology saying that Plutonians are Healers. That's just plain weird, except for Surgeons. Cutting into things seems to calm them down. Plutonians are power hungry, they simply want to have power. "Power corrupts. Absolute Power corrupts Absolutely." Scorpio lesson for the rest of us. Scorpios don't want to communicate, they don't even want to interact. They want to control from a hidden spot behind a bush. Not everyone wants to be in control so Scorpios are usually welcome in any gathering so this is not necessarily a bad thing. So, as sexy, alluring, talented, creative as they might be, never seek out a Scorpio for matters related to Peace.

Then comes Sagittarius. Sagittarius responds to the hidden motivations with either loveable candor (Jon Stewart) or open insults (Jon Stewart). Only Sagittarius can get away with this behavior though. Their behavior is definitely not something you should try at home on your own or you'll end up acting like Rush Limbaugh. This energy should come to the fore this year during the Jupiter-Pluto conjunction in December. Media, Publishing, Opinions, Racism, Bigotry, it may show an uglier than usual side, it already has. Sagittarius represents organized Religion. Some people find peace within the Church walls. So, there's the possibility of Osama's Holy War. Opinions, opinions, opinions, Insults. God is this. God is that. God is Great. Death to America.

Not Peaceful.

Then comes Capricorn. Capricorn rules the top of the chart. Its the Goat that keeps climbing the hill. It gets to the top of the hill and looks for a trash can, an old rusty car, your head, it needs something else to climb on top of. God, I can understand how tree frogs can climb with their little suctions cup toes, but Goats do it with hooves. They're not even built for climbing. Scorpio has to yield Power, Capricorns have to yield Authority. Both are creative. Creative people are not peaceful, harmonious types overall. Sagg is stuck inbetween screaming its head off, keeping everyone happy with Idealistic Rants about how things ought to be, and taking bribes from both Scorpio and Cap.

Capricorn rules all that is conventionally acceptable in society. Status Quo. It has listened to all of Sagg's whining and complaining and wants everything to conform and shut up. But it does want to fix problems. It does want to organize and lay plans. Just make sure Capricorn's plans are your plans. In a same vein, it is completely intolerant and unaccepting of anything that doesn't fit within its narrow margins. "I climbed up that tree with a stiff body and four hooves, why can't you?" Nothing starts a War quicker than that kind of attitude. You can't run around calling all the tree frogs failures and fools. And Capricorn is full of fears that the same rejection will be done to it. It's ruled by Saturn and Saturn equals Karma. In offices, everyone threatens everyone else into conforming by, well, all kinds of creepy means, but often with a saying that goes "What goes around, comes around." Capricorn is the God planet. Virgos and Pisces like to play Martyr but Capricorn likes to play God. Mel Gibson is a Capricorn. In his head he owns all of Malibu, for example. It's interesting, though, that he and Kramer have become the Poster Boys for Bigotry in the U.S. It's also interesting that Martin Luther King was also a Capricorn which I'm at a loss to explain.

Then comes Aquarius. Aquarius loves weirdos, eccentrics. It loves them all. But, in the same sense its love becomes meaningless and cumbersome. There is too much tension between how much can be expressed on an individual basis and how much can be expressed on a group basis and whether or not that's sincere or loving or just politically correct. Aquarius needs to experiment with this and compromises most needs for security and comfort. Not everyone can handle that. It's total bullshit most of the time as a matter of fact, although a little sure is nice. Maybe Aquarius comes closest to Peace. But, if you've ever walked down Market Street in San Francisco at 7 am on Sunday Morning you see what happens when Aquarius is left to fend for itself. Pisces is what happens.

Pisces. The Great Mystics. What could a poor little empathetic Pisces do to wreck everyone's Peace? The lost people diving through dumpsters on Sunday Morning, feeding off the greedy Taurus, Cancer, Scorpios' meals from the night before. The relatives no one wants to know about anymore. Once I was walking down a street in San Francisco kind of angry about a problem I was having with a friend and a street person turned around and yelled out my thoughts to me as I passed by. Pisces. Amazing, but not peaceful. Not anywhere near. If they get hungry they lie and cheat and steal. And then their functional versions make good livings for themselves as social workers in incompetant institutions trying to fix all the problems in the world. Well, if only they wouldn't burn out after a year from the stress. Pisces rules bureaucracy.

The Wheel passes down below the Horizon at this point to Aries. The bottom 6 signs are not at all concerned with Peace. Aries = personal drive. Taurus = physical comfort. Gemini = Communication and trickery. Cancer = Caring, but possessive caring. Leo = Ego. Virgo = Nitpicking.

So, Peace. What is Peace? It's a thing that is around us at all times in the Trees, in the Flowers, in the Children's innocent sleeping faces. Yet so elusive. Whether to talk about what is wrong, bomb another country, throw stones through large corporations windows, get high, stay straight, blame another, blame one's self, give up one's physical culture in order to pray all day. It's not simple. But it ought to be simple. It's a permanent condition that can be eroded in one conversation where one word is twisted.

I can watch Anderson Cooper show me bombs going off in Iraq and I know that I would rather not have that happen. But, I know that I'm not at Peace. I can only imagine that I would be more at peace if Anderson Cooper is straight and lonely and wants me.

I think that there are simple Acts of Kindness but even those are called into question by people who feel bound in someway to return a feeling that they can't reciprocate.

In the end, Peace is simply a word written on a Christmas Card or a Bumper Sticker. We can only experience it as a reminder to be at Peace. We must learn to enjoy the challenge of taking on Change and Decay and Defeat with Grace and to not Despair or lose Hope or lose our Hearts and Souls.

It takes the whole wheel of signs to achieve this movement, and the movement is good and cleansing, but the changes and adjustments necessary to learn new things seems to defeat the purpose.

In conclusion, all I can do is to wish you Prosperity. Bread and Circus. Permanent Healthy Prosperity with great Financial advisors, endless Religious Retreats and Psychotherapists although I think they're all useless for both you and your dog, no Pollution, no Global Warming, Osama died naturally of a failed kidney, and magical nonviolent, non-subversive, coercive, overt, relief from whomever and whatever else around causes you grief. I can offer you a picture of a Dove, a Picasso rendering of a Dove even, but I can't promise from my heart there will always have an Olive Branch in its beak.