Message #94119

[Bianca]

The Rest of the World

It is a shame that the concept of “politics” has become diminished from its original, valuable meaning: the study of systems of power. But it is worse than a shame if, in discarding “politics”, we give ourselves an excuse to turn our backs on what’s happening in the world, because the world desperately needs our attention.

Abroad, Americans are notorious for failing to give the world much attention at all. Our newspapers tend to provide no more than a skimpy couple of pages to cover the entire rest of the globe. Modern life in general does not provide humanity with the sociological identifications that existed in earlier times, when a sense of responsibility to one’s fellows was a key to survival. Instead, just about all we have these days is that vague and tarnished catch-all—“politics”—to take care of any and all issues of global scope. And if we dismiss that, what do we have?

Barring the occasional reference to "The Poor" that some Americans hear from their preacher on Sunday mornings, what other frameworks exist with which to view the world beyond our own tiny little personal sphere?



Caring About the Global Moment

I have suggested that an astrological perspective has the capacity to soar above the petty infighting of the culture wars, by equipping us to observe and to care about the global moment.

Caritas may be the highest possible expression of the sign Cancer, the sign the Sun was in on July 4, 1776. I use the word care advisedly. Though it may sound insufficient to those who see the only proper response in times like these to be some kind of activism, I submit that our very first task is to find a model for caring, not acting (1). As Barbara Walker has pointed out (2), the word "caring" (also the word "charity") derives from the beautiful word caritas: cosmic Mother-Love. Walker traces the concept back to pre-historical cosmology, which envisioned the Universe as a loving Mother who cared for all living creatures just as an Earthly mother cares for her children.

Caritas may be the highest possible expression of the sign Cancer, the sign the Sun was in on July 4, 1776. With four planets in Cancer, the collective entity that is the USA (3) clearly has some very pointed karmic lessons to learn about caring. As astrologers know, an individual whose birth chart features multiple planets in Cancer has a potential to raise empathy to an art form; and this is no less true of a Cancerian nation. America as a whole was born to express a certain understanding that Cancer knows better than any other sign: that all human beings are interconnected even as family members are; we are intended to care about one another in essentially the same spirit with which we hold blood relatives. Cancer is a water sign, and this is a lesson in emotional awareness.

Political awareness, by contrast—even at a sophisticated level—is simply a matter of education and information, a point to which we will return. Politics is, all by itself, an intellectual and philosophical arena; whereas astrology, among many other holistic traditions, can take us beyond intellectual understanding. It can open not only our eyes and minds, but our hearts, to what’s happening on this Earth.

Astrologers throughout the ages have eloquently demonstrated that any and all terrestrial matters can be interpreted by decoding the vicissitudes of the planets: the doings of everything from cabbages to kings are mapped out in the sky. Less obvious but equally true is the inverse of this parallel: the meaning of the doings of planets can be revealed by earthly events. In other words, we need to keep a sharp eye focused upon what is happening down here. Worldly matters are the other side of the coin implied by that most sacred of astrological laws: As Above, So Below.

The Earth is a mirror of the sky as surely as the sky is a mirror of us. Current events, as tracked by politics, mirror celestial events, as tracked by astrology.