And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'"
Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
From George Orwell’s prophetic book ‘1984’
I think that now that we are past the first quarter of 2005, which brings us about 5 years of Bush & Co, Ltd., counting in his time of first running for occupier of the white house, it is interesting to reflect back on Orwell’s novel 1984. Granted you could hold an entire symposium on the book itself and its relevance to today’s world, especially here in the U.S., but there is just one major theme I want to point up in this article.
That theme is the manipulation of the truth from Bush’s network of associates and the way it is being accepted into the fabric of American life.
need to focus on Neptune for this, along of course with Mercury, the mind and the Moon, emotion. Rather than just go through a string of aspects I want to examine what Neptune means in the U.S. chart. Then maybe we can understand the unbelievable amount of disinformation that is taken as truth in the U.S. today.
It seems as if this administration has accomplished what had since been done only in the fervent imagination of Orwell. They have managed to make truth lies and lies truth. And this is simply reported by the media and accepted by the vast majority of the populace.
It doesn’t matter how the truth is spun, it’s accepted. If in fact the ration of sweets is lowered in Orwell’s novel, then it is announced that it was raised by the powers that be. And in the 1984 novel, this fact is not just tolerated, but accepted by the audience it is intended for.
How different is that from the pentagon’s department of lies and misinformation?
Every individual that comes out against this administration is smeared and lied about, and it’s accepted as truth. Enormous swathes are cut in the budget for the lower middle class and poor and it’s not even noticed, yet the neo-cons claim to want to help everyone since their faith demands it. They are pro-life only when they can go against an individual’s own choice for their life and pro-death when it involves providing for the poor and infirm. Does this make sense?
Neptune is in the most elevated position in the U.S. chart, using the July 4, 1776 data based in Philadelphia, PA at 5:10 pm. Neptune is illusion and delusion and walking around in a fog. It is loss of self-identity and being absorbed in something greater than yourself. It is lies and half-lies and un-truths. And its not knowing what is real and what is not real, and not wanting to. Its Norma Desmond thinking she’s still on the silver screen and the cameras are rolling for her big close-up. That’s Neptune.
Neptune’s closest aspect is a square to Mars with a one degree orb. It’s farthest is a 9 degree conjunct with the Midheaven itself, which I personally believe is too far away for contact. I know many astrologers have their own opinions as to how wide you can go with aspects, but I tend to believe for the major luminaries, the Sun and Moon, it is a 10 degree orb and with all other planets it is 8 degrees maximum, no more allowed. But not everyone agrees with that so for those who want to consider the Neptune conjunction to the 10th house for personal reference I am putting it in, though I personally don’t use it.
Neptune is in the 9th house of religion, law, philosophy, foreigners, travel abroad and higher education. It is not in the first house of how we see ourselves and it is not in the 10th house of how others see us. Neptune is where we as a people are most prone to experience delusional foggy thinking; and conversely, idealistic thinking.
Religion, the law, philosophy, and foreigners. That’s our main category. How we really act and feel towards foreigners as opposed to the idealistic statue of liberty beliefs we think we have; what we really want from the law, and how the country is truly run, as opposed to the Thomas Jefferson platitudes we trot out in fourth grade social studies class; and when it comes to religion, well, it’s always been Elmer Gantry time in the U.S., not just in the heartland but in the big bad cities too. Bush and Company, especially Karl Rove, know this and absolutely bank on it (no pun intended). And so on.
Now in our progressed chart, which is the day for a year method, as of April 3, 2005, PNeptune is semi-sextile the PAscendant by one degree, in an applying aspect, meaning it’s moving toward the ascendant, not away from it. PNeptune is retrograde, as is PMercury, which is in a 1 degree orb applying aspect of an inconjunct.
A semi-sextile is a mild aspect, in its expression it has a slight feel good aura. PNeptune semi-sextilling the PAscendant means the U.S. as a whole feels rather good about itself right now, no matter what is going on in the world around us, or even in our pocketbooks, or what may come down the road. No matter how many jobs are lost, people going bankrupt or bills we have to pay, it’s an aspect of wanting just to feel a little good, like having a little coffee break and sugar rush with a glazed chocolate doughnut. The doctor said no, but still, you have to enjoy yourself sometimes. And we hear the birds chirp, and it’s a little panacea for the world’s ills that we just don’t want to deal with right now.
This is promulgated by the PMercury inconjunct. An inconjunct is a little off kilter, its off to the side, the wheels just aren’t meshing together quite correctly. So our collective mind as a country is now being hit by this progressed Neptune aspect. We just aren’t seeing things clearly and maybe we just can’t, not right now anyway, or maybe we just don’t want to. Remember astrology is just a map reading, it doesn’t make anyone do anything, it’s not fated (in my belief anyway), it just shows the address of the aspects and the directions on how they got there.
PNeptune is also moving away from another mild aspect by one degree, a semi-sextiling of the North Node. Again, this adds to our pleasant sense of disbelief that is going on right now, our wanting to just sit back and watch TV and make our plans and shrug our shoulders at anything that doesn’t concern us directly.
In terms of transits with Neptune, the U.S. progressed Moon is at 17Cancer 29 and transiting Neptune is at 17Aquarius1. So TNeptune is applying to PMoon with a less of a one degree orb in an inconjunct aspect. Again, emotionally all that was said above in the Mercury in conjunct aspect is valid, only this time it’s our emotions that we are dealing with, not mental thought processes and energies. Here we aren’t feeling 100% coherently; there is something a little misty and cloudy about what is going on emotionally in this country.
One final note; the Eclipse of April 8th at Aries 19 degrees will hit the U.S. natal Chiron by a one degree conjunction and is opposite the U.S. progressed Mars in Libra by one degree. The natal U.S. Chiron is in the fourth house and the Eclipse New Moon will be transiting that house, along with transiting Mercury, Venus and the North Node. Whether we have another terror alert or the real thing I don’t know, or whether the powers that be just want to try to scare us a little to get what they want, again, I can’t say but that is also a possibility.
I just want to end with this additional quote from ‘1984’:
"It was curious to think that the sky was the same for everybody, in Eurasia or Eastasia as well as here. And the people under the sky were also very much the same—everywhere, all over the world, hundreds or thousands of millions of people just like this, people ignorant of one another's existence, held apart by walls of hatred and lies, and yet almost exactly the same—people who had never learned to think but were storing up in their hearts and bellies and muscles the power that would one day overturn the world."
ISABELLE GHANEH