“White Supremacy” and Uranus in Taurus

The Atrocities We Commit Upon Ourselves

astrology chart tree of life synagogue shooting October 27 2018 Pittsburgh PA

I struggled to unlock this chart.

Obviously, there’s the Grand Cross: Sun and retrograde Venus in Scorpio opposition Uranus in Taurus, all square the Nodes.

There’s an eerie similarity between this chart and the 9-11 chart. The 8th House cusp in this chart is one degree from the Moon’s placement in the 9-11 chart. And both charts have Mercury (the Messenger) right above the Ascendant in the 12th House of karma and self-undoing.

But why, specifically, anti-semitism? I went through a gamut of feelings this week as I thought about this event and how it echoes the rise of Hitler amid a wave of anti-semitism and “white supremacy” in the 1930s – the last time Uranus was in Taurus.

I felt angry. I felt despair – how could this be happening again? I felt contempt and the desire to punish the lowlifes who parade their violence and hate under the banner of white supremacy.

Shadow Projection

The psychological shadow consists of anything within us that has been suppressed or repressed into the unconscious. Each of us has an individual shadow. And we have a collective shadow made up of the fears, drives and desires we as a species have deemed too dangerous to be allowed.

Shadow projection happens when a part of us wants to feel or act on one of these repressed desires or fears. Because we are not consciously allowed to feel or do whatever this thing is, and because repressing these energies is painful, we project it onto the other.

Most people engage in shadow projection most of the time. We want to feel (pick one: good, attractive, powerful, successful, intelligent, capable, respected) – but we don’t.

The root of our lack of self-worth always comes back to toxic shame. This type of shame doesn’t stem from shameful acts we’ve committed. It was implanted into us, most of it in childhood, by our parents, siblings, elders, and others who either were or seemed stronger than us at the time.

Because shame is such a hideous emotion we will go to any lengths not to feel it, we repress it into the shadow. There, it becomes a hidden part of our beliefs about who we are.

This toxic shame is the root of all addictions, most diseases, poverty, lovelessness, and just about any other negative condition you can imagine.

And when the shame becomes so painful we can no longer repress it, we have to do something with it. So we project it onto someone else, or a whole group of people. This brings relief, because now we are not to blame for this hideous thing we feel. They did it to us.

I think mass murderers like Robert Bowers are not only playing out their individual shadows but also showing us our collective shadow. Look: we’re poisoning our planet at a terrifying speed. We’re being bombarded by radiation, chemicals, hypnotic media images, noise pollution and electromagnetic frequencies like never before. The power and resources seem to be concentrated in the hands of the one percent. Many people have no hope left

Part of us feels ashamed and complicit. Part of us feels terrified. Part of us feels powerless to do anything to stop this apparent landslide into hell.

Uranus in Taurus and “White Supremacy”

White supremacy, as embodied by men like Robert Bowers, is such a bad joke. It’s projection of the collective shadow in its rawest form.

When you’re supreme, you don’t need to build yourself up by putting others down. When you’re supreme, you don’t post ignorant, hateful thoughts about Jews or blacks or whomever in online forums. You don’t need to fantasize about killing or enslaving entire swathes of the population. Because you’re freaking supreme. You know that your quality will win out in the end. No worries, mate.

I look at pictures of people like Pittsburgh shooter Robert Bowers or the crying Nazi from the Charlottesville riot last year and I think, “Who would want to join that club?”

The so-called white supremacists know they’re not supreme. In fact, they believe they are the lowest of the low. They are filled with so much shame and self-hatred that it is unbearable for them to carry it.

This doesn’t excuse their actions or hate speech. But reflecting on my own feelings about the Tree of Life shootings finally led me back to Uranus in Taurus.

Several of the most important people in my life have been Taureans. It’s a sign I’ve learned to love deeply, despite its incredible stubbornness and tendency to get stuck in its preferred grooves.

But I have to say that in my experience as an astrologer, I’ve found Taurus to be the sign that is least capable of introspection. Maybe this is because esoterically Taurus is the sign of the Earth. We can look out into the sky and see all of the other planets in context, in relationship to the rest of the solar system and to the galaxy. But we can’t see ourselves so easily.

The rise of white supremacy, nationalism, and fascism sweeping the globe is ominously reminiscent of what happened in the 1930s. But we don’t have to repeat the tragic events of the Great Depression, Hitler’s genocide of the Jews, or Stalin’s genocide of the Ukraine.

The way we avoid this is by working through our own feelings about what is happening, and by avoiding the circular thinking that characterizes men like Robert Bowers. (“I feel less than…someone must be to blame…blame the Jews…I hurt…someone did this to me…they must be punished…”)

Interestingly, this circular thinking shows up in the sign rulerships of the Tree of Life chart:

  • The Ascendant, Sun, Venus, Mercury and Jupiter are all in Scorpio, which is traditionally ruled by Mars
  • Mars is in Aquarius, ruled by Uranus
  • Uranus is in Taurus, ruled by Venus
  • Venus is in Scorpio, ruled by Mars….

It might seem like a tall order, but those of us who are somewhat aware and who are at least working on our personal evolution must lead the way by feeling our feelings, owning our own shadow projections, and finding better ways of expressing our feelings than blaming and shaming the other.

fReedom for the self = Freedom for the Planet

Because what Uranus in Taurus is trying to free us from is the compulsion to punish ourselves for the guilt and shame we feel deep down inside. Uranus is like cosmic intelligence and it always aims to liberate. Uranus in Taurus wants us to wake up and see that the hateful and violent acts playing out on the world stage are merely a collective projection of the hate and violence we punish ourselves with daily.

The belief that you are shameful and guilty and deserving of punishment is a direct result of the toxic shame you were imbued with when you were too small to resist it. It is the result of parasitic programs of control that have been passed down from generation to generation. The you can see this programming within yourself, the quicker you can stop being an accomplice to the inner atrocities that each of us unknowingly aids and abets every single day.

This is where art comes in. As my friend Mary says, “The only thing we’re good for as a species is art. Everything else we do f*cks up the planet.”

Making music works for me. When I pick up my guitar and let myself sing, I can feel the painful emotions that I might otherwise be suppressing start to flow through me and out of me.

Here’s the song I kept playing all week. It’s from the The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Honey’s Dead  album:

 

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