First published on june 28, 2018.
Normally I try to refrain from divisive topics such as politics, as most of the time they are hypocritical and designed to mask their wielders true agendas, and also because suffering is indiscriminate. Yet the current Ketu-Mars conjunction has stirred quite a bit of emotions regarding certain trends taking place around the world, and it would be a waste to discard such inspiration instead of attempting to make it useful and educational. I apologize in advance for any possible bias or opinion voicing, as the point is to objectively show the effect of two very unique conjunctions on global politics.
Table of Contents
1 – A mirror of history
2 – The oppressed majority
3 – Postmodernism and the over-swinging pendulum
4 – Misguided altruism
5 – Ultra-leftist violence and propaganda
6 – A distorted view of reality
7 – The elephant in the room
8 – The true meaning of Karma
When Trump was elected as president, some tried to equate it to Hitler’s rise to power in Germany due to his controversial statements and policies. Few however realized that this parallel is, astrologically speaking, far from coincidental but also quite ironic. At the time of Hitler’s rise to power, a rare astrological conjunction occurred which went practically unnoticed due to the divide between east and west. This conjunction involved both Ketu and Neptune being in what is called vargottama Leo – the point which places them in sidereal Leo both in the main chart and in the D9 divisional chart known as the Navamsha.
This position is considered extremely powerful in Vedic astrology, yet could not have been taken into account as it does not exist in the western systems while Neptune was ignored by most Vedic astrologers until the end of the century. It also coincided not only with the rise of Hitler and Ultranationalism but also with the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who served for an unprecedented 4 terms as the president of the United States.
This conjunction repeated itself in 2016, but this time it was in vargottama Aquarius. This sign distinction should not be taken lightly, as it reveals a huge misconception about what is really going on in terms of world politics and ideology. The promotion of ultranationalism in the 1930’s was in effect a way to empower select nations and races over others, thus mirroring the privileged Leo. Yet in Aquarius the situation is completely reversed and the fear of Trump quite ironically masks the fact that this time the pendulum swung too far in the other direction.
A mirror of history
The geopolitical situation today is in some respects diametrically opposed to the situation in the 1930’s. Instead of an economically ruined, oppressed Germany, it is currently the strongest country in the EU. Instead of mass unemployment in the US, the economy is quite prosperous. And instead of Ultra-nationalism, it is now the so called “Social Justice” movement that tries to rewrite history and threatens the rights of others.
And while the main subject of this article is focused on western culture, that does not mean that the reversal is limited to the west. As an example, in the 1930’s Gandhi was actively trying to overthrow the British Raj and revive the Hindu culture that was previously suppressed by Muslim and British conquests. Today on the other hand, India is not only independent but also ruled by a nationalist government. Quite ironically, while the Nationalist movement in India claims to represent traditional Indian values, they are in fact doing quite the opposite. For example, in the land of the Kama Sutra and the Khajoraho temples, they are trying to promote Muslim nudity aversion and modesty norms. In addition, while rightfully claiming a distortion of Hindu history by some Victorian era western scholars, they themselves go on to distort history by attempting to arbitrarily claim ever greater antiquity to the epic mythology of the Mahabharata and Ramayana contradicting even traditional Hindu sources like the Puranas and Varahamihira.
Examples of explicit Hindu and implicit Muslim expressions of sexuality
Another reversal can be seen in China, which was politically fragmented, impoverished and under attack by the Japanese Empire during the 1930’s, yet currently is an extremely prosperous empire in its own right and actively encroaching on territories claimed by Japan. The same can be seen with the UK, which in the 1930 controlled the largest empire in human history, comprising a quarter of the earth, yet today is uncertain even about it’s ability to retain Scotland. Another example can be seen in the case of turkey, which in the 1930 became strictly secular and pro-western republic, yet today has an Islamist, anti-western authoritarian government. And another often overlooked reversal can be seen in Russia, which was a huge Communist superpower in the 1930’s yet today is a Capitalist Oligarchy trying to reclaim its former influence.
The oppressed majority
The election of Donald Trump as president was seen by most people as a total surprise, but when asked why his supporters pointed out something quite strange. The most common answer wasn’t a genuine support for the man or his policies but an act of rebellion against discrimination!
This was quite jaw dropping considering that this claim of discrimination was coming from white people, and especially heterosexual males. But the claims that anyone who voted for Trump was a far right bigot by quite a few prominent figures revealed that there indeed was a problem, and it was far more widespread than many people think.
And in reality, when you look at the United States today there are several forms of outright discrimination against whites, men and even those who are of a higher economic status. First, there are affirmative action laws and socially driven campaigns that favor minorities and women and create forced diversity. Secondly, there is a trend of ignoring bigotry when it is voiced by minorities or women while severely punishing for such opinions whites and males, to the extent of them sometimes being fired over a single remark made a long time ago. Thirdly, there is the forced imposition of political correctness, with new terms for group identification being practically mandated on a regular basis in order to appease the relevant groups. And lastly, there is an attempt to portray anyone not agreeing with such discrimination as bigoted themselves.
Postmodernism and the over-swinging pendulum
When Affirmative Action was introduced as a counterbalance to the discrimination against African Americans in the 60, it was instrumental in both dismantling segregation and giving equal opportunities for advancement. Yet almost two generations have passed since then and the social and political climates have changed to the extent that the dream of a black president became a reality, but the affirmative action not only remained in place but was in fact added to by demands for ever greater diversity from various social groups.
In the same manner, the suffragette movement at the beginning of the last century provided vital change, giving women equal rights. This evolved overtime to include anti discrimination and anti sexual harassment laws to further ensure equal treatment and opportunities. Yet over time this transformed into modern day feminism, which actively claims that men are to blame for the evils of society, which ironically is bigotry in and of itself, and that objective, measurable biological differences are merely societal constructs that should be ignored while at the same time demanding privileged treatment because of those exact differences.
Such blatant perversions of the original struggle for equality are not an aberration or a mistake. In an attempt to compensate for the evils of colonialism, racism, slavery and bigotry, post WWII western society tried to empower any and all groups who were discriminated against by giving them extra legal protections and privileges. This was in fact quite a noble endeavor, yet it missed the well known fact that power corrupts. And with extra power and privileges being distributed to the oppressed, it became quite lucrative to claim a victim narrative. And while seemingly benign, this approach has already created severe tragic consequences.
One example of this can be seen in Canadian and New York laws forcing the use of dictated adjectives under threat of prosecution. Another is the refusal of UK child services to investigate domestic abuse out of fear of being labeled racist, and the inaction of French authorities against some of the hate crimes committed by Muslim migrants due to the very same reason. A third is the censorship of any ideology that might be deemed offensive in universities which limits both freedom of speech and freedom of thought. But perhaps the worst is the transformation of the Alt-right movement from merely a radical fringe element into a valid form of protest.
Misguided altruism
Another very tragic consequence of the attempt to overcompensate for the evils of the past is the current European refugee crisis. While they may have been noble in their intentions, the attempt by former colonial powers like Germany and Belgium to force the economically weaker and non colonial Eastern European countries to accept huge numbers of refugees into their territory fueled the rise of several far right governments. In addition, it fueled a resurgence in nationalism and hate crimes in Western Europe as well.
The mere acceptance of refugees by the economically prosperous European countries also created a tragedy for the refugees themselves, as it made many of them risk their lives in the attempt to reach Europe, with tens of thousands dying on the way. And at the end this apparent nobility turned out to be a charade, as when the numbers of refugees grew and push came to shove, Europe was more than happy to support an oppressive dictator as long as he would stop them from reaching its shores instead of admitting that their ideals are impractical and changing their policies accordingly.
Ultra-leftist violence and propaganda
During the 2016 presidential election, there was widespread fear of violence if Hilary Clinton would win, due to the numerous far right supporters of Donald trump. Yet it was in fact the supporters of Clinton who turned Violent after the election, thus undermining the democratic process they were supposedly trying to protect. Unfortunately this wasn’t a mere fluke but a symptom of a serious problem, as while previously it was the far right who often turned violent, nowadays the far left with groups like Antifa are more likely to behave violently than the nationalists themselves.
Another example of extremism is the vegan movement and extremist animal rights groups. While the desire to alleviate suffering by not eating meat is noble in intention, it forgets the fact that plants can feel pain too, and that they are usually still alive when eaten. It also inadvertently increases suffering by destroying habitats to increase special crops (such as soy) production as an alternative to eggs and dairy. The same can be said for not killing animals for furs, yet banning leather from the meat industry would just make it go to waste and further increase habitat destruction to produce more cotton and flax. Worse still, the use of propaganda claiming that humans naturally evolved as vegans or that a vegan diet is good for diabetics is actively harming people’s health. The same is true for the chemicals and fibers in many faux leathers and furs, and the equation of meat eating to murder increasingly serves as an excuse for actual violent crimes!
Cuteness or the ability to scream are not objective measures of suffering
A seemingly more benign form of ultra-leftist propaganda can be seen in the entertainment industry. One example of this is the BBC comics depicting black Britons and legionaries, or the black Achilles and Myrmidons in “Troy: fall of a city”. While these depictions seemingly support diversity, they are in fact doing the complete opposite.
In the case of the BBC comics, it not only distorted history but also completely cut out the actual diversity present between the mostly Mediterranean looking Romans, the mostly Irish looking Britons, and the actual black auxiliaries from Nubia and Numidia who served in their own elite units of the Roman army and would have served as a far greater source of pride than a melanistic Celt.
The situation is even worse in the case of Troy, as Achilles was not only depicted as far more “Nordic” looking than his compatriots in the ancient sources, but an actual Ethiopian king named Memnon who was described by Homer himself as equal to Achilles was completely discarded as irrelevant. And while Helen was depicted as a feminist victim in the show, it did not bother to emphasize the legendary Amazons who were respected and admired even by the famously misogynistic Ancient Greeks themselves.
An even more absurd example of this trend can be seen in the Disney Star Wars movies, which were heavily criticized by the fans. While Disney went as far as to claim that the fans of the franchise are racist and sexist, an unprecedented attack by a company on its customers, it completely forgotten the pivotal characters of Padme, Leia, Lando Calrisian and Mace Windu from the previous movies, who were all fan favorites. The same strategy was also attempted by the producers of “Ghostbusters: Answer the Call”, creating a pattern of claiming customer bigotry to avoid taking responsibility for producing bad films.
Thankfully it is the media arena which provides not only a means to fight back by not paying money for such films, but also a direct rebuttal of the bigotry argument itself with the recent success of movies such as “Wonder Woman” and “Black Panther”. And this is in fact a snapshot of how the victim narrative was mostly hijacked to serve as a political weapon instead of a shield for those who truly need it.
A distorted view of reality
The empowerment by victimhood currently promoted by the radical left is in fact far from new. It is actually the exact same mode of thinking that gave birth to communism, another radical left ideology which placed factory workers in the roles of the oppressed and gave them license to kill any perceived oppressors resulting in more than 100 million deaths.
Quite ironically, it was also the fuel for Hitler’s rise to power, as in his narrative the victims were the Germans and the oppressors were the French, communists and Jews. Even more ironically, the Nazi ideology explicitly emphasized self empowerment through shedding of the victim narrative and regaining self esteem. This is in fact what made it so popular, and it is also the reason it was directly opposed to communism, which sought to preserve the victim narrative and use it as an empowering tool in and of itself.
With that being said, there is a big fundamental difference between the radical ideologies of the 20th century and what is happening today which perfectly reflects the differences between Leo and Aquarius. While both Communism and Nazism were used by the relevant groups to empower themselves, nowadays the ideologies are often geared towards others. For example, many of those who demand aid for refugees are not refugees themselves but quite often upper class people.
In the same manner, the most vocal support for minorities often comes from whites and the most vocal defenders of women are often men. While this seems quite commendable and noble, in reality it creates a very serious problem. In quite a few of these cases, when the claim that the rights of a certain group were being violated were raised members of that group actually stepped forward to rebuke those claims as untrue. Later on, it was often discovered that those making the claims did so not out of concern for others but for selfish reasons such as political gain or publicity.
A good example of this can be seen in the US invasions of Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. While the pretext of saving these countries from oppressive regimes was both noble and valid, that so called “help” was forced upon these countries instead of being requested. Not only did such help fail in establishing true democracies in these countries, it also resulted in far more deaths than perpetrated by the oppressive regimes themselves!
The elephant in the room
Whether you agree with him or not, the intentionally divisive and controversial rhetoric of Donald Trump is exactly what got him into office, proving the adage that “there is no such thing as bad publicity”. In fact, he intentionally doubled down on this rhetoric during the campaign, turning it into a reality TV show like the one he ran successfully for more than a decade. This, in and of itself, already proves him a better politician than his competitors.
Yet despite this, he went on to do something that almost no other politician ever done, which is to actively fulfill his campaign promises regardless of politics or even pragmatism. While unflattering, it would be accurate to say that the only good historical example of this being done is that of Adolf Hitler, who actually did provide jobs, cleaned the streets, rebuilt the economy, placed a radio in every home and even tried to provide every household with a car. And he did all of that during the great depression. Still wonder why the Germans supported him?
So ironically those who compare Trump to Hitler are in fact correct, but for the wrong reasons.
An even more inconvenient truth for his critics who claim Trump to be misogynistic is the fact that his staff is full of not simply women, but extremely competent women who have proven themselves to be not just the most politically convenient candidates but actually the best ones for the job. The same goes for Dr. Ben Carson, a presidential candidate, and Elaine Chao, the longest serving secretary of labor since the Roosevelt administration, who are the only non white members of the Trump cabinet yet are clearly not there just because of their race. This rare example of true meritocracy shows what actual equality and non discrimination really look like, especially in a field populated mainly by white males. It is in fact so rare that the closest historical analogy one can find would be Genghis Khan more than 800 years ago, and the only contemporary analogy in the NBA, one of the least diverse non-racial organizations in the United States.
A very stark contrast can be seen when comparing the above to the Roosevelt administration, which was the longest in US history. Unlike Trump, Roosevelt was charismatic, popular and willing to lie and manipulate whenever necessary to achieve his goals. The most extreme examples of this were the lend-lease and the oil embargo on Japan, which left it no choice but to declare war. Both of these, while noble in both intention and outcome, were in fact a blatant abuse of power given the fact that the vast majority of Americans were strongly opposed to any intervention, let alone joining the war itself.
In addition, while history remembers him as a progressive liberal, and he was even considered too liberal by some at the time, he was in fact the only president to put American citizens in internment camps. He was also the one to severely restrict the acceptance of Jewish refugees into the US and the one who refused to bomb Nazi concentration camps to save lives. Even his well documented womanizing would be considered appalling by the standards being imposed today in the US, and might have surpassed even the purported misbehavior of Trump himself.
Only one of the above has yet to violate human rights
The absurdity of demonizing one and idolizing the other, instead of embracing what they did right and avoiding their mistakes, is the very definition of extremism which instead of advancing society curtails its progress in all but weaponry and warfare. It is also completely hypocritical, as when looking at the facts Roosevelt actually DID what Trump is being accused of doing, while Trump himself has yet to show a single incident of true bigotry, tyranny or abuse of power and plenty of evidence for both tolerance and decency. Perhaps that will change in the future, at which point one could justify the violent opposition he received, but until then it is akin to crying wolf as an excuse for abusing a dog.
The true meaning of Karma
Both Ketu and Neptune are often regarded as Karmic planets, with their traditional symbology being almost interchangeable. Yet the western misconception of karma as “what goes around comes around” hinders our ability to understand what is really going on. In fact, Karma can be more appropriately oversimplified as Newton’s third law, which is commonly interpreted as “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. With that in mind, is it surprising that if Ketu and Neptune in Leo gave rise to Ultra-right Nazism then their conjunction in Aquarius should coincide with the appearance of a Radical left counterbalance?
Due to modern propaganda people also tend to forget that the fighting against the Nazis was done not by modern day liberals but by the exploitative and oppressive British Empire, The segregated and openly racist United States as well as the dictatorial and genocidal yet paradoxically racially tolerant Soviet Union. The latter also did the majority of the fighting, dying, and even winning as the Japanese were literally more scared of Stalin than of atomic bombs (and for good reason). And while it might seem that we have advanced quite a bit since then, the pendulum always swings from one extreme to the other and now it is not black liberals but white conservatives who require police protection due to death threats in the US, while minorities are being lynched by skinheads and gays are being sent to concentration camps In modern day Russia.
With all that being said, the worst thing one could possibly do is fight against these injustices. And as absurd as this statement may seem, both the 180 degree reversals discussed above and the cyclical nature of the Rahu Ketu axis itself show that to be the worst response possible.
To demonstrate this more clearly, let us equate Rahu, which astrologically represents the cold, calculating, expressive force to an assault, and Ketu the hot, impulsive, internalizing force to a insult. If someone assaults you and you kill them, it is self defense. Yet if someone insults you and you kill them, it is murder. As such, any desire to actively fight the extremism mentioned here without it directly assaulting you or someone who asks for your help is in fact the very same evil you are trying to defeat. This is also the true meaning of both karma and Newton’s third law, and as Einstein has stated “doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity”.
Nof fighting against injustice however does not mean doing nothing. It simply means that a fight is only effective when it is fought FOR something, such as justice, equality, freedom or even security. In fact, fighting against something is the same as taking a map and saying where you don’t want to go, and fighting for something gives you an actual destination you can reach. But whatever it is you are fighting for, please also remember that if it is not proportional then sooner or later the pendulum that you swung will inevitably fulfill its Karma and reach the other extreme.
“Sweet dreams are made of this Who am I to disagree? I travel the world And the seven seas, Everybody’s looking for something.
Some of them want to use you Some of them want to get used by you Some of them want to abuse you Some of them want to be abused.”
Eurythmics