The Power Smile
Our beautiful world is facing many crises.... It is not a time to pretend everything´s good. The Dalai Lama
A trend I'd like to see die with Pluto in Sagittarius is the aggressive smile. The big toothy, open-mouthed smiles on buses, billboards and newscasters creates a surreal cultural landscape. There's a dark side to the power smile. It has invited Pluto's compulsions, obsessions....all designed to mask the despair of an empty, materialistic life. I'm most haunted by the power smile, when the eyes are not laughing, and seem empty, or kinda maniacal. The eyes are the windows of the soul, after all, not the mouth. How much truth has been hidden behind a perfect smile these many years?
Sagittarius is the sign of smiling, the eternal optimist, and there's nothing wrong with that. But with Pluto as the vehicle, that optimism is fraught with danger. The smile became the menacing fortress, to hide what's really going on. You know, surely, that the baring of teeth is registered as a threat in the animal kingdom. I'm ridiculously happy, and you're not, the ad seems to say. To be powerful (Pluto), and experience this kind of ecstatic bliss while talking on the cell phone, sign up here.
As consumers start to consider what's essential and what's not, it'll be interesting to see what kind of look is marketed. I predict the mania of happiness will be toned down to realistic levels. More authentic smiles (with laughing eyes) and just plain old contentment.
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Jupiter in Scoprio could be that everything is good in the larger picture. Even the bad serves to give us desires and solutions to transform our world into a better place. It’s all good and soon will be better. Scorpio is our soul which transmutes the negative into positive thru it’s awareness of the big picture. The bad generates desires which gives us direction.
My understanding of Buddhism is to be present with everything and not judge it as good or bad. So, I think the Dalai Lama was talking here about being in denial of what is (if it’s bad, like the imbalance in the world). That’s how I took it, anyway. I like your description of Jupiter in Scorpio. You reminded me that Jupiter in Scorpio has faith in life, through its ability to believe that things CAN change. that bad can be turned into good, waste into something new, toxic places brought back into balance, etc.