You might not get into small talk today, with Saturn (Libra) trine Mercury (Aquarius). In air signs, this aspect has the mind casting for fresh and free thoughts, beyond the same ole', same ole'. It's great for research into fascinations, or radical ideas that could bring balance back to society. The labels extremist and subversive get thrown around a lot lately, the latter have to register now in my neighboring state of South Carolina. But we're in the free speech zone now -- the open forum encouraged by Mercury in Aquarius is dangerous to entrenched power, because it's higher loyalty is to human evolution, and the common good.
I wonder if most of the American founding fathers would be rallying from the fringes of the 'net, if they were alive today. Would Thomas Jefferson be labeled a homegrown terrorist for his defense of the 2nd Amendment -- the right to bear arms -- against governmental tyranny? Ben Franklin, a Mercury in Aquarius, was an innovator and Aquarian seer. Not shrinking from controversy with statements like, "All wars are follies -- very expensive and very mischievous ones."
The brightest lights of American history are those that took risks to further America's promise as a nation of high ideals and equality. One such light was Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday is today! An Aquarian Sun, he saw beyond his own time, especially evident in the Gettysburg Address. He spoke of the unfinished work of America, and the need to keep striving, so past sacrifices for freedom were not made in vain. With the hope, he said, "that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government: of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
In her article, Saturn-Pluto, the Big Squeeze, Jessica Murray writes that denial is a huge obstacle to growth now. We are being confronted with in-your-face events that show we have slipped dangerously off our moral moorings. The nation's lifeblood is supporting death, not life, she writes. "If the money exists for death-dealing purposes, it clearly exists for life-enhancing purposes. It is only the strictures of conventional mentality (Saturn) that keep so many Americans from seeing a con game behind this scenario." The realization that both parties serve the same master is liberating.
Jessica writes, "After all the denial is all squeezed out, what remains will be a bold readiness; an eagerness to come into our own." Today's Saturn-Mercury trine has us thinking collectively about balance, and how to restore it to our world. The pressures we're dealing with now force us to seek alternative solutions, and let go of cherished beliefs about who we are. Pluto transits often hold up a mirror to ugly realities, especially about destructive ways of living we've grown dependent on. But the squeeze prepares us to be warriors for freedom (Uranus Aries), in the coming months. As Jessica writes, "Such a change is only a mindset away. The country's thinking could light up like dry straw ignites to a spark when the Cross begins to peak."
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