I like to think the site is a haven from the stresses of politics but the current situation is serious enough to make my thoughts public. I have never had and probably will never have a dangerous encounter with a police officer.
I am so sorry to anyone who does not feel safe to call the cops when they are in danger. Or who knows that any encounter with the police/justice system is automatically far more dangerous for them because of their racial background.
It is uncomfortable to say this but in the past, I shied away from thinking about my white privilege. It was partly as I felt that to acknowledge it would somehow negate the trauma and abuse I had endured.
But I was also defensive in an “I had an Aboriginal boyfriend!” style. Or aware as in “I was furious that the movie adaptation of Cold Mountain removed the ‘ramifications of slavery’ scene and cast Renee Zellwegger as a character who was meant to be African-American.”
Now I can see that’s like someone who is overlooking a domestic violence situation talking about how they met Gloria Steinem or think it’s great that Wonder Woman was helmed by a woman.
I just did not want to see it. I have had police-people being extraordinarily pleasant and supportive to me in the wake of a serious assault, after burglaries, during an investigation into a potentially predatory children’s swimming school teacher and even when a family member was arrested for a serious drug offense.
I hate thinking that this is not just ‘how it is.’ But if I was non-white looking, every one of those intersections with police could have been drastically different. The stress of whatever the event was would have been compounded.
Life serves up all sorts of s**t and yes, people of any ethnic background can experience trauma. But trusting that the cops will give you the benefit of the doubt is an undeniable advantage. The assumption that police are there to save or protect you and that everyone suspected of committing a crime will get their ‘day in court’ is a white assumption.
It is not only inaccurate for a significant sector of American/Australian society – it is unsafe for them to believe that.
The homicide of George Floyd was particularly horrifying because there were literally no possible extenuating circumstances: it wasn’t a shoot-out, terror raid, night-time, minors at risk, imminent threat or any sort of a chaotic situation unfolding.
It was more like a scene from a documentary about the Nazis than a 21st Century, first world justice system at work.
Of course, there has been a legion of horrifying murders and deaths in custody, with skin color as the factor most likely to imperil people. The unprecedented response to this specific atrocity is in part because of the era: Saturn conjunct Pluto forced a socio-cultural and geopolitical paradigm, one that will take a while to propagate through our system.*
And, as if this needed an accelerant, Pluto is square Eris until 2021. I see Eris as less ‘wedding gatecrasher of the Gods’ and more Persephone, Underworld Queen. Or even Hekate. (I will explain another time.)
Regardless, she is an insurgent and a chthonic deity like Pluto. Nothing stays hidden. Everything erupts. Just look at what’s gone down since this square began in early 2019.
America’s Pluto Return
The U.S.A. was founded* with the Sun conjunct Jupiter and Venus, opposite Eris. It’s a flashpoint. Pluto spent 2012/2013 conjunct the American Eris and opposite the triple power of Sun, Jupiter, and Venus.
2012 was Benghazi, Xi Jinping becoming president of China and the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. 2013 saw his killer acquitted and the formation of the Black Lives Matter movement. It was also the year that former CIA employee Edward Snowdon revealed the extent to which Americans are under surveillance.
It was a Plutonic prologue.
2020 develops these themes with Pluto and Eris both in aspect to the U.S.A. Mercury. If you were a person having this transit, you’d be compelled into telling the truth and confronting hazardous materials. It would be the only way for you to retain your power. And not only that, the reconciliation would make you stronger.
Dark Pluto themes include abuse and the shame that abusers project onto their victims. Anything to ensure the perp is flatteringly lit in a halo of justification. If it is institutionalized, the abuse and the blame becomes tyranny.
There is another astrological echo here:Pluto and Eris are respectively opposite and square the Uranus of August 1619. America’s natal Mercury is conjunct this turning point.
In August 1619, a ship called The White Lion bought the first “cargo” of African slaves to America. Fun fact: The ship was owned and captained by a Calvinist minister, a John Colyn Jope of Cornwall.
We must do better to stand up for the rights and equality of those who are discriminated against and treated unjustly. I know a lot of Australians think this is an American problem, but it is widespread and the Indigenous Australian community is sadly affected too.
Australia has its own astrological watershed coming up – the current nation was formed with Sun, Saturn and Pluto in Aquarius.* More on that another time.
For those of us with white privilege, we must listen, support, and share indigenous voices. Don’t let the people close to you get away with casually racist comments or brushing off the pain that indigenous Australians are feeling. I have been guilty of looking the other way, with a ‘well, what can I do?’ sort of an attitude.
It’s true that I don’t legislate and have become cynical about the ability of politicians to drive meaningful change. Nonetheless, that’s not good enough and I’m giving this some high-level thought.
For anyone who is out protesting or swept up in the chaos, please stay safe!
Some problems we share as women, some we do not. You fear your children will grow up to join the patriarchy and testify against you; we fear our children will be dragged from a car and shot down in the street, and you will turn your backs on the reasons they are dying.”
―
This is from 1924 and I cannot find anything else about the homicide but it’s disgusting how casually it’s reported – anecdotally, as if it were an amusing story.
Image: Barbara Jones-Hogu
Credit: The “dark ancient and deep” in the post title comes from Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider.
*For simplicity, country charts are done off the moment they were legally ratified. Clearly, there were nations, cultures, and people pre-dating that moment. Similarly, I have a birth chart for when my company was legally registered, although the concept and sensibility existed long before that.
**A lot of people are talking about how it is America’s Pluto Return – as in Pluto is nearing the same degree of Capricorn it was in when the country was founded in 1776. But I see Neptune in Pisces opposite the natal Neptune as more significant.
Can the country live up to its Neptunian ideals and grand visions? How can it sustain its incredible cultural and performance output without a spiritual reckoning? Or, conserving the old wisdom of the first nation people and (Neptune!) its ground-waters?
I keep thinking of the time I was in America and the lady in the shop said my $20.00 note was a fake and refused to accept it. I am not dead.
It was an old tattered note, could have been a fake. I am a white middle-aged Australian woman. Still I am not dead like George Floyd is dead.
My 25 year old daughter goes for a run around the neighbourhood. She is not dead. She is a young white female – no need to follow her in your pickup truck with two rifles – still she is not dead like Ahmad Abery is dead.
My son is grown now, but he used to go to the shop with his friends and buy lemonade and lollies when he was 14 – he is not dead like Trayvon Martin.
I am white – while my safety is not guaranteed – I am privileged. I also live in a country with very tight gun control laws. That, to me, is a blessing.
I keep thinking of the saying “an apology isn’t a true apology without changed behavior”. Words and thoughts and prayers just aren’t enough anymore. Our actions speak so much louder. We have to do better. We have to realize that as a human race, none of us can be truly healthy, successful, and well when so many others suffer because we are all intricately connected to one another. No life should be valued above any other.
My heart hurts but I have hope that we can create something new and beautiful together.
Everything needed to erupt.
There has been no justice.
Gil Scott Heron always relevant
Thanks Mystic. I find the posts you write addressing the global state of play very insightful.
I am very much a nine houser, and this theme has been bugging me for a while. There was something i was not seeing, something i could not understand. Something any person writing about rasism knew, and that was so obvius to them that it has not been put into words. A woman i know here in Norway put it into words, and i went. Aha!! That is why its claustrofobic. Now i get it! Any mean or bitter or wicked person feel they can take out their foul state of mind on her. They do it often, and Unpunished. Usually women of 40+.
Fortunately you have to have 5 years of training to be a cop in Norway, and the police is unarmed. In the states a wicked person can cause real harm by falling the police. Imagine any mean hearted person taking out their envy or bile on you, just because they can. That is horrible!
As a black woman, it’s difficult (annoying and exhausting) to have to read and hear more about how white people feel about this moment in time. I know that this site doesn’t normally have contributors but I think having a few voices of colour weigh in would have a lot more impact than a white lady airing her white guilt. I come to this site as a refuge from the daily grind and am just a little more bummed to be reading about how complacent everyone is (was/will eventually be) in their whiteness. Also a trigger warning would go a long way for POC’s like me, who are not interested in reading more about the injustices that are inherent to our existence. Allyship is a lot more effective when the ally doesn’t center themselves in the conversation and instead uplifts and amplifies black voices that have been doing the work. It’s also feels like erasure when the article says “we must do better” as if there are no black people that follow this blog. What I’m seeing in the comments section is quite a bit of humble bragging.
Would you prefer white contributors here say nothing ? I’m sorry you are disappointed but after reading most of the comments of support I can’t see any other reason for disappointment other than your own feeling of separation from those that aren’t POC ? Allyship takes 2 sides to be in harmony. Rebuking an ally because they are white sort of misses the point ?
I’m a ‘black’ Jew ( that’s what euro Jews call us) who’s roots are in the Middle East.
Your pain has been going on for a couple of hundred years ours for literally thousands. Can I be an ally ? Is my support for you some type of virtue signaling as you suggest is prevalent here ? This community is a great mix, let’s not separate ourselves based on our color or creed.
That said, I feel your pain, it’s in my dna.
My white Jewish wife comes from a family where 102 out of 104 of her family were murdered by their own government. Would her whiteness exclude her from commenting here ? I hope not.
That’s an incredibly apt response, David. And yes, I can feel the pain and frustration of the initial post. As a POC, I believe the marathon ahead of creating any substantial change, lies in thorough and open communication. Persons of ANY colour should educate themselves on these issues, and ideally remain aware, and activate any behavioural adjustments in their personal conduct, that will substantiate the necessary evolution that’s required culturally. And remain vigilant, after the crisis dies down. X
Well said David. Thank you for articulating the deeper feelings I cannot articulate.
Atotaldrip I know what it is like to be in the raw world of trauma and so sensitive that anything that doesn’t resonate feels like poison. You just need immediate recognition, action and people not to say they know how you feel because no one can.
I can understand how hearing their stories makes you angry. It just isn’t the right time. It can make it feel like a competition as to who has suffered the most injustice. Comparison is not helpful. Compassion is needed. These are my thoughts anyway.
All I can offer you is a hug. compassion and
xxxx.
p.s. If I sound duplicitous I am sorry. I can see both sides of the story.
Please don’t diss on me AS IT IS MY BIRTHDAY TODAY !
Firstly, Happy Birthday…
I mentioned the comment “can feel the pain and frustration” as a simple means of expressing that I experienced an emotional response/can empathise/relate/connect with Atotaldrip’s thoughts etc.
That’s all! Not putting myself directly in her shoes.
And yes, compassion goes a long way x
Thank you Orchid.
Jeez don’t worry about the “can feel the pain” comment. I hadn’t even read it.
Look after yourself.
X.
Many happy and blissful returns, Wish, for your b’day. Like that you weighed in with your thoughts, and called upon a bit of b’day compassion. Like your thought and emotion expressed in simple truth. Hope you have an amazing celebration of your self xx
Thank you so much Millie !
X.
My reaction isn’t happening in a vacuum. It’s that there are so many white people on the internet coming to terms with their complacency within white supremacy. I suppose what I’m feeling is a sense of hurt that the injustices of the world are only now occurring to so many people. It confirms my worst fears that apathy is at the heart of the oppression and inequality faced by the “minorities” of the world that these inequities were/are actively ignored. I think you might be missing my point as far as allyship goes, it’s not the fact that these people offering their support are white, it’s the fact that I have to hear the story about how they came to their “wokeness” before I can access their support. It’s the centering of their experiences before they can even start to try to approach support. It doesn’t make me feel amazing to know that because this person dated a POC they were self-satisfied enough to believe that that was “the work”.
As far as separating ourselves based on creed and colour, the world does that for me. I have found astrology to be a beautiful coping mechanism to take myself out of my personal experience and connect with my story to the universe. That being said, we can’t pretend that my colour doesn’t influence the way I experience the world and the way the world experiences me. To me that feels like a form of erasure, to deny me my identity of black woman is to ignore my experience as one. I see what you’re getting at when you say let’s not separate ourselves but we are still trying to convince the world that black lives matter. Until that’s true I have no choice but to be separated by my colour.
What I want to say is as these inevitable feelings of white guilt bubble to the surface, please think about the people who have been living in the shadow of your willful ignorance all of these years. And how the acknowledgment of that ignorance might feel to the people that have been calling it out from the start. I ask that anyone reading this takes it as an opportunity to hear from a black person that’s being real with you to think about black lives and how they matter.
Firstly, it’s wonderful to hear your voice, your thoughts, your experience. Thank you, truly.
One thing that has occurred to me is the scale of things. Here in Australia, our total current population stands at around 25 million. In America, it’s around 325 million.
While we certainly have our black history, and consequent “system” that suppressed minority cultures here (or just basically has white people at a constant advantage)..I think, even with the internet as a tool for educating ourselves, we here in Australia cannot literally feel the intensity of racial issues on the same level and scale as it’s felt in America.
This does not in any way diminish our responsibility to implement much needed change. But possibly the actual scale of urgency and hurt and pain seems different to us, as we observe what black Americans are experiencing and subjected to.
This is just a thought I’m sharing, and it’s mentioned with complete respect for what you are, and have, experienced in America as a black woman.
Again, it’s fantastic to read your posts. x
I am sorry- I hope we do better for you.
Just wondering how you judge who is POC. Have you followed the commenters for a while?
There is white privilege, then there is a complex of privileges for people who have experienced the binaries AND the grey areas, and had it called out as ‘passing’. Though there is never acceptance from any group, just curiosity at best, and hostility at the most wounded point.
Here in my Mid-Western town, our Jewish clergy convened a Zoom meeting of Black pastors to educate Jewish allies on racism and being Black and how Jewish allies can act for change. Many on the call were children of Holocaust survivors. We all just listened. And the mics were controlled by the hosts for good measure.
Too often as soon as a Black voice is heard, we white allies drown it out with…”Oh you don’t mean me, But my grandchildren are Black, my kids godparents are Black, I read The Root..”
In the Great Lakes US, we Jews both suffer anti-semitism and exercise White privilege. We can use that privilege to center Black voices, to march at the sides, to not make it about us.
Jewish women- unless they are also Jews of Color, don’t get followed by security in high end stores, but our local Black prosecutor and Black judges do. They are asked for several forms of ID when paying for merchandise. My daughter’s Black friend was told to go find her mother, in the makeup section of a tony mall while my White ginger daughter was fawned over.
Here in suburbia, my Black women friends are routinely followed by police in traffic- their cars are newer than mine- while I, in my ancient rusty minivan rarely am.
Before my sons drove, squiring them with their Black guy friends, even to 711, meant being ever vigilant to hostile store staff, suspicious, nosy neighbors and police- and being a more visible White Mom presence than when the kids were White. I knew the lurking potential for escalation and harm.
While a major Black city is gentrified “revived” -The local Labor movement and trades have been entrenched with racism- so that in this 80 % Black city, the construction guys are vastly white and drive home to suburbs an hour away. Even when contracts were premised on a percentage of minority tradespeople- the locals and trade schools have not admitted Black carpenters, builders, journeymen.
Here both Sephardi and Askenazi Jews pass as White- get business loans and mortgages more readily, and are heralded by local chambers of commerce as pillars of the community. Alongside their WASP counterparts.
All of this is very local to my corner of the world.
Astro-wise- Pluto slowly but surely adjusts the levers of power. We allies have to hold those difficult conversations- in our circles. We can march, vote, pay marchers’ bail, support equity, volunteer, get out of social media silos and hold ourselves, our families, and our colleagues accountable.
“You are not obligated to complete the task, but neither are you free to desist from it” (Pirke Avot 2:21
Hey sorry, I am a bit late to this! I meant ‘we’ as in people who need to do better, not ‘we’ as in everyone reading the blog!
It can be tricky to get the balance right on a blog, particularly when it is an astrology blog and not a news or political one. For example, I used an image last year and had an equal amount of communication from POC saying they loved it, representation, etc, and POC who hated it. When I’ve mentioned things like being vegan, it is similarly polarizing.
So if I had been a “white lady” not airing any guilt or had just ignored the whole thing, would that have been better? It is my blog and my main intention was to try and convey the astrology of the current flashpoint; then I realized it would be wrong to write it without that share.
In terms of the site, I know exactly what I am doing and unfortunately, it’s not something I can do in a hurry: I am creating a new section uniquely for and about Aboriginal/Maori Astrology & Archeo-Astronomy. I already have a person in mind for the Aotearoa component but if you are an indigenous Australian with expertise/strong amateur interest in the topic, email me.
I can certainly understand. It happened to be the first thing I read this morning and I was just not ready or wanting to hear about it. I’m grateful for your considerations and your ability to exercise accountability. It’s nice to know that you are asking yourself these questions before posting. We all have our histories and you’ve been gracious enough to share yours. I suppose in this moment, I have very little patience for the heavy feelings of white folks just tuning in because BIPOCs have never had the choice to tune out. It’s great to hear that there are some diversified projects in the works and I look forward to them!
Thank you! And yes, I only shared in case other people like me were stuck on the “but I’m NOT privileged” rhetoric. I understand the lack of patience for sure. People – arguably, white women in particular – are socialized to transmit ‘warmth’ or ‘alliance’ by conveying their ‘similar experience’ or ‘how they relate.’
Unfortunately, it can end up with –
Person 1: So I fell off the highest mountain on Earth, I’ve just been let out of hospital after a decade…
Person 2: Yes, I know what you mean, I tripped on the back step and split my toenail, it’s still sore…
Additionally, this astro IS bringing up stuff from the past. It’s South Node in Saggo – we remember our teachers and enjoy (?) vivid flashbacks to things we learned. It’s also a storytelling kind of a South Node. Stories from people’s personal lives can be a kind of ‘wokeness wanking’ – as a vegan i hate people responding to that with a rave about how they don’t eat lobster but can’t give up veal.
But stories can also change consciousness in a nano-second and people talking/trying is surely better than false relativism?
I think a lot of people are not so much just tuning in as wondering when they tuned out. Thank you again for grace with this!
Mmmm…I dunno.? I feel that in your example, the commonality of Person 1, and Person 2 both experiencing pain is valid enough for them “to relate”. Their experiences may not have been equal in measure, but their experience of pain creates a form of understanding …even if it’s a small understanding.
I don’t know you. All I can say is “I see you, I hear you, I sympathise with you”. I am half Italian and part Chinese, born to people who came to Australia legally and illegally, were treated well and not so well. The historic treatment of POC compels us not to turn a blind eye. We do care.
Riffing off posts about cop encounters, i have definitely had supportive, frankly dirty-feeling and confusing, and sort of Cap Mars comfortingly administrative encounters in freak events. Reading lately, and putting together stuff i heard before, i have realised some of the dirtiest darkest feeling encounters since very small have roots in a history of men whom i intuitively felt were predators of a pattern borne of colonialism, post colonialism, systematic twelfth house damage. I never saw myself as any less than the god and goddess powers and open channels to nature as my birthrights. I grew up with my chosen mates who didn’t have all the same privileges (on burnt toast) but who got me better and whom i loved better.
These surface-superior, vicious destroying perpetrators have been felt by deep root systems across time and generations but pinging off taboo. 2nd 6th 8th 11th 10th and 5th house and other bodily emotional
socialised and sexual freedoms of choice. Probs also 3rd house of natural connection and expression. Effect on 9th philosophy, or ability to have one, yet every human impetus is to have pholiosophies, which begins where you feel at home 4th. These are dirty, vicious, passively feeding the cycle, smooth debating, silent denying, status quo while not liking it but also upholding the status quo, men. (Not including micro aggressions in this, it is all MACRO.) The worst dirtiest energies this warrior intuited, from even age 3 holding my Aries grandma’s hand (she did turn and silence with a sound i never hward her make before and a fist in the air, no word) have all been linked, i knew, to my being mistaken for Aboriginal. I have since then heard first hand, but now i read in daily journals some more. Now maybe. We’ve been faffing about with this, so when do the real emotional and effective politics strike real Australians, who are not as flipping simply socioculturally socioeconomically defined as we are sort of half comfortable hearing about ourselves? Yeh i know we have the Feels about it, but what are we really doing to signal it and demand change and real long going reparations???
My thought is not about the US black and Aboriginal politics, because i am exhausted and cried out tho more tears to come. It’s more about representation in a v specific aspect and connects to my reading of this site.
I like the paintings and prints you have chosen over the years, including Wed 3 Jun Daily Email. What I find especially hilariously on point, though, are the high fashion photographs accompanying heavy shit astro posts like Saturn Hotel etc. Women perceived as privileged and inspirational are funny and relatable in these chaotic or swamped contexts, but they are usually european descent in looks. The others are fierce ancient queen types or ultra contemporary cool. I wish high fashion photography could normalise the idea that non-privilege-assumed women can well be privileged outside gangsta-wealth pride or new money flashiness. I noticed the skin colours in images here on and off, and never have perceived it as wrong of Mystic at all. If i felt i needed to see different stuff i found other sites. Mystic, i just wonder if you notice the choices available in hi-fash photog at all?
I just now recall being in modelling younger than 10 yrs old and never experiencing being pigeonholed. Funny i forgot i did that. I ran into a fashion mag photographer friend recently, and still didn’t think of it. People are creative, but institutions and conglomerates trade off really limited sales pitch assumptions. And also the idea that colour must = povvo or scholarship/dodgy nouveau corruption binary.
I get this! I would love to get some thoughts on the scenario because I shied off using POC models in pics after complaints that were broadly either ‘why only portray black people if they are supermodels?’ and ‘don’t you think this picture is denigrating?’ It’s easier to put in a pic of an euro-looking model with an ironic caption/story because Vlada or Eighties whom-ever won’t get scrutinized and nobody will care if I am implying she’s had ten Adderall with her green smoothie and is plotting a Uranus opposition bust-out move. Model-wise, I have a file of fantastic pics of Halston-era Pat Cleveland, Donyale Luna, Iman, Mounia, Grace Jones – not so many of the current or more recent ones, as they’re copy-protected. I’m editing the back-blog, gradually, taking out images such as Terry Richardson pix (i think they’re all gone but will check) so would welcome suggestions. I am not trying to make this ‘all about me’ but the thing is if I need to add an extra hour onto my already 12-hour workday, to soothe aggravation or debate a head-dress choice of Grace Jones (that would just be fuq-yeah, whatever) on Jerry Hall, the blog quickly becomes unworkable.
I think if your (absolutely fantastic) choice of images chosen to illustrate posts is purely based on aptness or inspiration…then why should it matter if any models are white/black/POC??! As you’ve conveyed, you’re not making a political statement necessarily. Your creatively expressing yourself. If you use a photo of a beautiful Tibetan-Brazilian model, for example…I’m looking at the composition of the photo, it’s content inspiration and/or admiring their appearance. I’m not connecting it with any politicised act. I don’t think you’re ‘trespassing’. Your just illustrating your blog!! X
My sense of it, too.
I’m so glad i could express this well enough to dialogue with you. It’s a challenge to represent with humour and fashion, and not offend. Had no idea you had edited to remove back-post images of T Richardson. That is more work, but worth it for the quality of the blog as it is accessible in the moment, not just an historical post. I think you’re extremely thoughtful.
thank you but not really lol – he just really gives me the shits. I LOVE Petra Collins at the moment and the work she is doing with Selena Gomez – it is so interesting to see beautiful pictures/film without any particular interest in ensuring the ‘girl is sexy.’
@plutorose Christ, defending Zimmerman?? A middle-aged man stalking and chasing an underage black boy. It is so upsetting to think Trayvon’s last moments was full of fear, trying desperately to get back home (probably to call the cops on the weird perv following him). Imagine if that was a white boy or a white girl. Zimmerman would have been DONE. He never announced that he was Neighbourhood Watch, never asked him what he’s doing, just started chasing the poor boy. How dare you defend him and downplay that horrible miscarriage of justice.
Thank you for being so vulnerable and sharing your internal journey even though it can be uncomfortable to reflect upon. I have been having my own wakeup call this year about how I did not want to acknowledge my privilege or dive into my own subconscious and cultural programming. Why? I think it was because like you I have had a lot of trauma and was dealing with my PTSD ever since I was a teenager. I just didn’t have the bandwidth to take it on. And now that I’m making progress with healing my personal things I’ve found that I can.
As an extremely sensitive person protests and cultural upheavals like this give me anxiety and make me disoriented but I have been working hard on my grounding practice. You really can’t be there for anyone else until you are grounded. I wish I had learned these skills younger not only for my own benefit but so I could show up better in the world for others.
“The personal is the political”, “physician heal thyself”, etc.
I envision a world where laws are enforced by well-paid leaders who are integrated with the communities that they literally PROTECT AND SERVE. People who are ROLE MODELS instead of people drawn to the job for the power trip. I’m not down with the anarchists infiltrating the protests and saying that there should be no police, but I am here for completely rebuilding the police from the ground up with new recruiting, new rules. I also believe that it should be 50% women. I cannot imagine a woman doing what that officer did to George Floyd. At 11% women it’s a boy’s club. We need more empathy and thinking before action in law enforcement and women will bring that.
x.
It’s Marvin Gaye’s birthday, btw. What a great time to pause and reflect on the immense beauty brought into this world by black people. ❤️
“What’s Going on ?”. … Too many people crying.
Completely agree on the beauty brought into this world by black people, and Marvin Gaye is one of my favorites… however, I thought his birthday was April 2 1939? Could be of interest because this is an astrology blog…
You’re right, born on April 1, died on April 2. I heard the misinfo from our local radio station yesterday. Funny I was thinking that I wasn’t getting Gemini vibes.
Hi Sagittaurean, you are right, no Gemini vibes from Marvin Gaye. But then again, I never got particularly strong Aries vibes from him either. I just checked his chart and saw that he had a tight Moon-Neptune conjunction in Virgo. This in opposition to Jupiter in Pisces. Venus also in Pisces. This fits, I think. At least from the outside, and to me, he seemed like a very, very Neptunian individual…
As an Aries I think he portrays many of Aries attributes ? 😘 I also have a strong Neptune and combining both influences can make life a very interesting ride. He’s always been a favorite of mine and I used his magic on my wife in the early stages of our relationship to warm things up 🔥to great success ☺️
Hi David, as an Aries yourself you are the right person to recognize Marvin’s Aries vibe, I am sure! Marvin not only had his Sun in Aries, by the way, but also Saturn in Aries. So there may have been some ambivalence about asserting himself. In his song ‘Keep on Dancing’ he describes his shyness about dancing:
‘I used to go out to parties, and stand around
‘Cause I was too nervous, to really get down
But my body yearned to be free’
To me this always sounded like Saturn in Aries (which I also have in my chart)
Guess what. If you have 10 bad cops and 100 “good” cops who are looking the other way at their horrifying actions and racism, you have 110 bad caps.
There’s been protests down the street from me in Hollywood, and the spa I’m helping my gf rebuild is on Fairfax. All this amidst shelter at home orders & oddly, people calling in and whining about how annoying it is not to get their personal beauty services. This cross-section of systemic racism + tyranny + police brutality in a backdrop of selfishness is all too familiar.
Growing up under Marcos, I found myself marching at 16 in what was called the people’s revolution, that resulted in him absconding to Hawaii & Imelda covertly seeking help from the US gov’t, whilst making sure she traipsed about wearing the same outfit as if to say “poor us”. The gaslighting was phenomenal, and while there was no official slavery there, the country has a history of keeping the masses underfoot with large gaps in income and equality. 300 years of colonization under Spain & the Catholic church made sure of that.
I remember the armed guards our family hired to protect the store my parents owned 24/7. One of them got shot point blank in the head but managed to survive as the bullet lodged in his cheekbone, and another who was on guard for the village, sustained seven knife wounds in a stabbing where OUR guards , the ones WE had actually hired for our store, attempted to have him collude in a home invasion. Both times I was 13 & 14, and both times I was the only one up to take them to the ER with my Dad.
Where’s the police you may ask? We called but they said we would have to pay them. Screw that, we couldn’t lose time so off we went, each time I spoke to each bloodied man to stay awake, it will be ok, we’re almost there, things I had no idea were true – but what’s the alternative? Despair? So now all of this in the middle of a pandemic that “freedom loving” Americans refuse to acknowledge as fatal & near them is just bringing up memories & skill sets from long ago.
The difference? That was a 3rd world country, this is America.
The only reason I had protection was that we had enough money to get protection. Other people? Brown people. Had none. So they died and disappeared in numbers that required secret mass graves. Either at the hands of the corrupt dictator, his agents or at the hands of bad actors motivated and/or forced by abject poverty. And by poverty let me be clear, these are people who pass out on the street to forget hunger. Who resort to selling their children in a thriving pedophile sex trade. A people who for a time could not even understand or comprehend what 20+ years of authoritarian rule had done to their thinking. Marcos had one historian write ALL the history books.
Marcos unlike Trump was erudite, even charming. But in the same way, layers of money & power silenced everyone around him. And those who spoke were gone.
I know what it’s like to leave your house in the morning knowing you will never know who is an enemy & who is a friend. Who will rob you today? The guy on the bus or the cops? Those times calling the police was like reporting a rape to someone, who assessed your broken, disheveled state & decided they’d have a go at raping you too.
I won’t profess to know the extent of hatred black people feel for being the color they are, for having their identities stamped out by stereotypes and fear, and I won’t profess to knowing to the extent they do, what it’s like to know with absolute certainty that if ONLY THEY WERE WHITE, this whole encounter would’ve been done in less than 20 minutes.
I think that’s the most painful edge on this – is that the brutality is SPECIFIC, SELECTIVE & RESERVED just for them.
The outcome so far is that we’re seeing that change comes from one thing: HARD, BORING WORK. Policy change, process change, practice revisions. Consistency and constancy in making those changes. Never had the words, “the devil is the details” rang truer than now.
Obviously, none of it is sexy.
In a country that loves sound bites & reality tv, it requires being better when no one is watching. This is a painful time for everyone, it permeates everything because the conversation can no longer be avoided. And the wound must be lanced.
I suppose it’s the one thing that I’ve appreciated about this pandemic. This enforced quietness that people hate, and normally fill with noise, activity, materialism & overthink. In that silence, injustices stand out even more starkly and the question of where one stands becomes quite simple.
Now when I talk to POC, particularly black people, I ask, how are you feeling today? Because I know the answer 9 times out of 10 is attacked, invisible, discounted, angry, helpless, tired and sick. I want them to know I see them, I see the world they live in and to the extent I can, I’m there for them.
I hope this time, it turns the tide. Even if it will never erase the original sin.
Thankyou for sharing your life experience. Many times we dont care to know what it is like to live in someone else’s shoes, so wrapt up as we can be in our own importance and secretly afraid our facade will crumble, exposing how privaledge and complacency has built a weaker character. Now is the time, in an assertive and calm way, to call out misguided and discrimatory language and behaviour, to remain silent, is to collude. Recently, I sat at the kitchen table of elderly clients, two 80 something farming brothers, having a pleasant conversation and sharing a generously laid out afternoon tea. Somehow, one of them made a hideous racist comment about a neighbour to which the other chuckled. I felt my heart cease beating for a second, then, as I looked out at the green pastures of ‘their’ land I spoke…”I think we’d all be better off if we knew the truth, you know, the small pox blankets, poisoned water holes…you know? like when I was at school, we were never taught about the massacres..” For several seconds there was a confused silence, then an abrupt change of subject but I know the words lodged like a stone in one’s shoe, to be made known again with every step.
You ask black and POC how they are, Fallen, and you can make that connection as you know the edge.
People on the double edge:
of experiencing violent brutality and murder;
of having some money to furnish protection and offer whatever care they can.
We don’t ask out of curiosity and seeking edification. We know what we can offer, and the woke are great forces but pls don’t start with the sort of crap Libraquarius below has to put up with:
“I have people telling me that I’m a “female immigrant of color” and that “this is my fight too”. Friends are upset that I’m not “utilizing my platform”
I think Fallen has articulated best that we know what and how to make any personal difference.
No editing was required to make Zimmerman look anything. He was and is vile. To be clear, the case of Roderick Scott is by no means a parallel to this. He was woken up by three people – including Cervini – robbing his neighbor’s car. He phoned 911 and went outside: he said he had a gun and that the police were on the way. The boy in question ran at him and was shot – as you can imagine the case was thoroughly examined in court where, by the way, Scott expressed extreme regret. He was not a policeman or a person in power – he was trying to do the right thing.
Zimmerman took it upon himself to be the neighborhood watch person, an appointed vigilante who was constantly contacting police with unhelpful “reports” that always involved young men of color. Trayvon Martin was a kid who’d gone to the shops, being followed around by an older man – Zimmerman stalked him. At one point he contacted the police with his unfounded bulls**t and they told him to stop – he didn’t. Trayvon started running at some point – towards his home – it is absolutely heartbreaking to think of how frightened he must have been: Zimmerman killed him – allegedly after Trayvon ‘attacked’ him.
Race was not was a factor in the Randolph Scott/Christopher Cervini case – he was confronted by three robbers outside his house, the police were minutes away, his gun was legal.
But Zimmerman was clearly race-motivated and predatory – he could easily have reported his bullsh*t boundless suspicion to the police but he did not.
Zimmerman wanted to be a Marine but became an insurance salesman. He was charged with assault and battery of an undercover police officer in 2005 but got ‘sentenced’ to anger management/alcohol treatment. He also has several domestic violence priors both before and after 2012.
After his shock acquittal of Trayvon Martin, Zimmerman set himself up as an artist – a “therapeutic outlet” – but it was clip art, ripped off from Shutterstock. I don’t have time to detail all the s**t this person has pulled but to illustrate the depravity and stupidity: He tried to auction off the gun used in the murder and he is currently Trayvon Martin’s family for 100million, as well as Elizabeth Warren for tweeting to commemorate Trayvon. He also tried to claim the jury was prejudiced against him because he’d put on weight during the trial. The family had ambitions of turning themselves into a successful reality tv franchise, like the Kardashians.
It is a tragedy that Christopher Cervini died and it would have been preferable if Roderick Scott had remained inside but these two cases are not comparable.
Zimmerman’s behavior post-Martin has proven he is unstable and an unreliable witness in his own case; arrests for domestic violence, armed violence in road rage incidents, appointing himself “security” for a local gun shop and lurking in his vehicle with a weapon. Again, I get strangled and arrested but THIS guy roams free? FMITM. He’s a Libra, btw.
Two of the hardest reads for me in the last two years were, “White Fragility” by Robin DiAngelo and “Why I am no Longer Talking to White People About Race” by Reni Eddo (for an English perspective).
100% recommend.
I’ve just started White Fragility. Bombshells from the first page.
Follow no other no other astrology sites but do get Wake Up World newsletter that recently added astrology. About this coming Lunar eclipse was a heading HOPE FOR WISDOM-PREPARE FOR WAR. Can’t access monthlies for June due to dunno what but am sure Myst has it covered in them in a not so black & white (oops) way. Retro Venus (Where is the Love?).Mars in Pisces seems like it is creating steam. What is deep in the subconscious is being prodded upwards by the warrior of war.
Do know Sagg focuses on ethics, knowledge ‘who made the world & why’ and looking at the big picture and we so seem to be insane society generally at the moment so maintaining feet firmly on ground and reaffirming what is sacred to us, what our beliefs really are at a core level may be the order of the day or (moon).
The Stars, their energy, actions what they are manifesting has never been as important as it is now.
Thank you so much for this. As of 01JUN20 in Chicago, there have been 1208 people shot, with 249 of those being homicides. Out of that 1208 people shot do you want to know how many were police involved? FIVE. That is 0.41% …not even ONE HALF OF ONE PERCENT. Of the 249 homicides…out of those 5 officer involved shootings, 3 of them were fatal. That’s a whopping 1.2% Please tell me how the police are the problem? Should we all turn a blind eye to over 99% of gun violence because it doesnt involve a police officer? Where is the outcry from community leaders to stop killing each other? Where is black lives matter when the violence doesnt involve a white person? Why has main stream media put so much energy into fueling hate and division? I’m truly at a loss right now.
I have been a police officer in Chicago for over 14 years, with 12 of those being in high crime areas on the south side. Make no mistake about it…I believe what happened to George Floyd was horrific and that those officers should get exactly what they deserve. My frustration comes from always being labeled as the bad guy when in over 99% of the cases we are not. I do not tolerate oppression nor do I tolerate bullys of any kind. I invite an honest dialogue with anyone on this forum but if you just want to name call, kindly do it somewhere else. Thank you.
Source for data used: heyjackass.com
Lefty418, I am somewhat informed on the gun violence in Chicago, mostly gang related, I believe. I have a close friend in Chicago, a psychologist who worked with kids who had gotten caught up in gangs. The short answer: Unchecked capitalism. A lack of funding for education, amongst many other sociological injustices have led many to believe there is no other way.
It’s such a relief to hear that you believe that those officers deserve punishment. The fact that proper charges took so long to be pressed is a huge reason for all of the unrest. Where I live peaceful protesters have been critically injured, with one dead, due to officers using their weapons ( rubber bullets, bean bags) in ways they were never meant to be used. The police department’s response: Their officers were never trained how to use these weapons properly. This is also most likely due to lack of funding. Many police are very angry, defensive and reactionary here. Many police are rascist. More funding should be put into psychological vetting and training and less into militarization Thank you for trying to see all sides rather than falling in the category of lack of the willingness to understand, which is causing more violence.
George’s murder happened on my block, and truly there’s been a staggering amount of ppl who have come to protest. I have a long way to go on allyship as a white privileged cis woman and have made many mistakes / avoided owning up to things. Its going to be a journey of learning and listening alongside helping the community, donating, supporting black businesses, divesting from police etc. It is major Pluto Saturn vibes
Strength to you Dark Star. Stay safe. Staying kind is maybe all that is required of you?
Could not disagree with you more, Pegasus. I commend DS for owning up to her own blind spots when it comes to race (and Mystic too, for that matter), but the time to be silent or “just be kind” has come to an end. Maybe you didn’t mean “staying kind is all that required of you” in a passive way, but it certainly reads that way to me.
If we don’t get people to use whatever privilege they have to actively work toward ending racism, RACISM WON’T END. I’m from Los Angeles; I saw just how little changed even after Rodney King was brutally beaten by LAPD and the city turned to fire in the wake of that horror.
When I was sixteen, my friend (black) was driving my car while her boyfriend (white) was in the passenger seat and I was napping in the back. We got pulled over by a cop even though she was traveling at exactly the speed limit, all the brake lights were working, etc.. She was pulled out of the car and thrown on to the hood, cuffed, and shaken violently. She was doing nothing wrong. She was so polite it made my heart hurt even as this man was brutalizing her. I was frozen in fear in the back; fortunately, her (again, white) boyfriend had the presence of mind to disobey the cop’s orders to stay where we were and literally threw his body on top of hers. Like magic, suddenly the cop drew back and all his energy dissipated. All it took was a white body on top of my friend’s and suddenly he was all reasonableness and politeness.
What’s even worse is that for my friend, this wasn’t unusual. This is what she lived with every hour of her waking life–that she didn’t have any rights, that her life could be arbitrarily taken from her because the people in charge knew they could do it.
The time for passivity and “just being kind” is over. That’s how we got here. We need active allyship and participation from people who haven’t ever had to question that the police were there to protect them, who haven’t experienced segregation or discrimination, who haven’t lost jobs, educational opportunities, bank loans, and more because of the color of their skin.
It is time for all of us who have any kind of power or privilege to pull out heads out the goddamned sand. We are sinking, and unless we act now for our POC friends and families, we will all drown.
Thank you Kilimanjaro…
Yes, it’s not about “just being kind” (though it would definitely help!).
It’s more about base-level ethics??!
Well Orchid i’m from Adelaide South Australia. What the fuq would i know about racism! Should i have not commented on a post about America?
The French word for kind is gentile aka GENTLE.
KIndness IS gentleness.
What do you suggest i do? Sign a goddamn petition or something equally inane.
Jump on a flight to the USofA and be an say a few words? Stick flowers in their guns?
G U N S about that, why don’t you stop selling guns there?Act about that. Australia did after a massacre faster than quick.
I di my part in protesting the Vietnam War very actively, now i believe in gentleness, must be an age thing. Don’t ever disagree with your grandmother. It’s called respect.
With all due respect: very little about your replies are making sense. Please re-read my post. If you are operating from a position of privilege, you may not know anything about racism–okay, fine…? But maybe educate yourself or listen to the POC instead of posting these kind of…um…nonsensical word salad responses where I can’t really parse the meaning, message, or logic.
Signing petitions is a start. Not as inane as you might think, although yes, they are mostly PR moves–but guess what? We are currently living in a media-saturated world that is motivated and moved by people who know how to use PR. I personally am not a marcher (terrible immune system, crowds give me panic attacks) but you can damn well bet that I redid my budget this month so I could donate to Breonna Taylor’s family. At my friend’s suggestion, we had a letter writing party where we all wrote personalized cards and letters to every state, local, and police department we could find who are related to these awful cases. We also made calls. Literally hundreds of calls.
These things do make a difference. It takes time. And as someone who “actively protested” in the Vietnam War, I would expect you should know that.
You could also read books about how endemic racism is in ALL COUNTRIES, not just the U.S. Some of your posts seem to paint Australia as a post-racial paradise and I can say from having visited there (Asian-Am here) with a couple of POC friends–that is definitely NOT my experience.
Also, regarding this sentence: “Don’t ever disagree with your grandmother. It’s called respect.”
Good lord, WHAT?
I say this to anyone here who is young and who has racist/checked out/clueless family members–you are ONE HUNDRED PERCENT allowed to disagree with your grandma if she is spouting ignorant nonsense.
Thank you AGAIN, Kilimanjaro!
The very least I could do. Off to make more calls to city council people. Hell, I’m unemployed thanks to COVID-19–this is my full-time job now.
When I was a kid we moved from Sydney to outback Queensland. We played with other kids at the local waterhole but other ‘new’ Australians expressed their displeasure to my mum that we should be allowed to mix with original Australian children…Mum set a standard for us and told those misguided folk that we would continue to swim at the water hole, along with whoever else was there.
As descendants of immigrants to Australia, we all have to face up to the truth that white Australia has a black history – we need to acknowledge the past and present injustices so we can make a future nation that could be strong and reconciled.
Nothing is enough for the ever-starving victims of the oppressive white patriarchy. For what it’s worth, I appreciate your initial kind comment and this follow up.
She said, “Stay safe”. Do we not put on our own oxygen masks first and foremost? Pegasus knows some deeper aspects of of DarkStar. “Staying kind” to oneself and being kind to our friends here is the only good start, for those of us who … well, i’ll leave that up to you to trawl the archived posts, which is a rare prayer to the people who are long part of us. Candour is one thing, but caring truth is different again.
Thank you so much for this. I’m an American woman of color and I deeply appreciate your work, Mystic. This post is more meaningful than I can say. <3
x.
Hey there, we here in Oz have great simpatico for women of colour thanx to Alice Walker’s writings. That’s not a ‘royal’ we as i know the women here and David are sending you Heart.
Did you see the movie Barbarella. There is a line ‘an angel doesn’t make love an angel IS love’. The Black Queen (Anita Pallenberg) was smoking ‘essence of man’.
You can vape essence of Mystic’s followers for peace and love and a whole lotta kick ass.
As an Australian woman of multicultural heritage..I can tell you that racism definitely exhausts here in Australia. There is White Privilege present here today.
In my experience, my physical appearance has both been applauded for its “exotic” nature, and also led to instant presumptions about my socio-economic status, education, and “intentions” basically. I’ve found many occasions where I have had to go above and beyond, to simply be considered “equal and safe” by your average white Australian.
So, yes. It’s here, it exists. White Privilege. X
Typo: exists…not exhausts. (But actually it’s BOTH!)
Yes it is exhausting. Why do humans create so much drama and stress?
Can you elaborate on “intentions” and where do you live? I am merely curious.
Intentions, meaning ‘are you going to threaten my position or superiority, or advantage…in various situations with white people.
I live in the Noosa area, believe it or not?! Full to the brim of privileged white people. I grew up in Noosa, and after being a “true local” for over 40 years…have recently moved to another town in the area. The move was due to a lack of social diversity, and culture. X
And, having said that I’m a “local” to Noosa…
I have also extensively travelled the world, attended a distinguished boarding school for my education, and have enjoyed success on my career path! I was born here in Australia, but are often mistaken for “a foreigner’…
Same here. I am a brown-skinned female from the American Midwest, born and raised. My mother was born elsewhere but spent almost all her life there. We both often got the same questions and presumptions. I was either seen as a threat or undeserving of my titles/ positions, and had to go above and beyond to show I rightfully held them. We both moved to more culturally diverse regions and do not wish to go back.
Thank you for sharing your experience too! Perhaps, it’s best summed up as “a subtle erosion of power”? Sometimes, it’s in your face, but often it’s subtle. As if you’re a guest in your own country?! It’s sad, given we are in the 21st Century. X
It’s interesting what you say about being threatening.
Oh Noosa. I used to live in Ringtail Creek. I used to go to the spit with my friend and her dogs. I’m of Maltese heritage and was born and bred in Melbourne. So I appreciated Noosa for its sophistication and the tourists and backpackers made it feel multicultural.
The beach and a favourite Asian restaurant called Tuk Tuk were great. But being in my late 40,s back then I laughed at the pretentious ness and materialism.
Living in Melbourne I took for granted the multiculturalism and culture. Oh and yes at a Brisbane workplace I was called exotic. It made me laugh because in some places in Melbourne it is : spot the Aussie.
I think, like many “privileged” towns/areas, Noosa welcomes an array of “guests” from international backgrounds…but the emphasis is on “guests”. We welcome you to enjoy our beautiful area, and spend your money…but then you can leave (ie. don’t move here permanently). For example, if an affluent Brazilian family moved to an affluent area of Noosa…the general consensus would be that they “got incredibly lucky”.
Sad, but true!
Oh I felt that clique in Noosa. One day I went into shoe shop as they had a fantastic sale.
The locals in the shop had a clique so tight I could bounce my car off them. It made me laugh and feel sorry for them. They didn’t realise how insular their life was. It was like living in a small town.
This is not to “hate” on Noosa, specifically.
This is about the presence of White Privilege in this country. Noosa is just an example.
Next time you’re in town, observe the apparent minority of “coloured” residents. They are there in small numbers, but mostly doing “culturally appropriate” things like running an exotic food outlet, collecting trolleys, and other such things…and that’s how Noosa likes it!
White Privilege. X
I understand Orchid. It still sounds horrible. The White Privileged telling the others that they should know their place.
This all reminds me of the time I was in my 20s living in Melbourne. An older white man commented on how well spoken I was in a supermarket. I just looked at him like he was an alien. Me being a Gemini and very street smart.
He wasn’t getting the response he was seeking. Idiots exist everywhere !
Orchid am so sorry to hear this. Yes it exists. My closest buddy has covered her great grandparents heritage up due to this, says she is just ‘tanned’. We have never spoken about it but one day hope she opens to discussion and we have deep talks.
Am assuming aboriginal heritage because as a multi-Sagg my foot goes in my mouth a lot. Lucky i do yoga 🙂
As Thomas Paine wrote in 1776: “These are the times that tries men’s souls… Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered.” This was written 244 years ago about the USA ( I think that is a Pluto cycle)
Yes Mystic, something else that comes to mind is the public humiliation of Adam Goodes, Australian AFL player, ex-captain of the Swans. Calling him gorilla and ape. Makes my blood boil. There is a doc on ABC on him currently.
Rio Tinto just recently casually destroying 40, 000 year old Aboriginal site with no consequences.
F*@ktards hitting golf balls off the top of Uluru.
So many things. Too many.
Maybe there will be a spotlight on our own BLM as a side effect, cos there is plenty of ignorance and racism and death in custody here in Australia. I call it when i see it, but have seen it too often. What is positive is that there are cultural programs in schools to educate and celebrate Indigenous culture, and the kids respond really well.
O YES, that was horrific. They made me feel ashamed.How did HE feel?! We all just want to feel PROUD of ourselves no matter the colour. The song Melting Pot. Take a pinch of white girl take a pinch of black man…etc etc. and the world will be a great big melting pot.
Who was the woman that wrote all the crystal books who lived with American Indians then Aboriginal woman and found they all had crystals in common.They gave her all their secrets and magic. Lyn someone.She was well read in the 80’s. Think the book was called Crystal Woman.
To the white people commenting their own bad experiences with cops – read the room. This isn’t about you right now. Now is the time to reflect on those bad experiences, and put yourself in a POC’s shoes. “How different could this scenario be if I were black?”.
Thank you Mystic – You’ve also spurred me to discover Audre Lorde’s amazing essays and speeches! Thinking of buying one of her books now for my necessary winter reading.
AMERICAN PLUTO…. Dark Ancient and Deep.
Forgive me commenting out of turn. Am so sorry, you are right this is not a about me. Sheesh i’m blonde.
‘How different would it have been if i were a POC’?
Answer: No different. Apologies for living in the Land of Oz.
As a fellow blonde Aussie – the way cops treat Indigenous Australians is horrific compared to how white Australians generally get treated. Especially if you live in affluent areas. It’s definitely confronting, I’ve had to do lots of re-learning over the last couple days. Nobody is perfect especially when it comes to racial biases because it’s so hardwired into our brains from a young age, but if you honestly think an Aboriginal lady in your same situation would have had the charges cleared and the $8k in legal fees repaid… highly unlikely.
Umm. I don’t mean to be rude, but if you were a POC, you could’ve been shot, killed, beaten, and held without due process. That’s how your police run-in would’ve been different.
I live in Australia. At a work morning tea not too long ago we were talking about emergency room visits. I was the only white Australian in the room. We have a pretty diverse team, from eastern Europe, Vietnam, Burma, and other places. I was the only person who hadn’t had their papers checked or their CHILDREN SEPERATED FROM THEM in the emergency department. If you think you are not treated differently you need to do some real listening and reading to Indigenous Australians and other minority groups.
The posturing of “good whites” is something you will read about when you get to your Audre Lorde. Try bell hooks while yer at it. White guilt helps only white people.
One hundred percent.
Let’s focus on listening and learning from POC and the Black community right now.
Thanks for leaning in Mystic. For those that need evidence of an Australian problem 430 Aboriginal deaths in custody in the last 30 years not one law enforcement officer found guilty. Watch Trevor Noahs excellent take on the current riots and the global implications. For advice on owning your white privledge and standing up against racism go back to the blue eyes brown eyes experiment and check out Brené Browns Anti Racism posts. There is no such thing as not racist only Anti racist or racist. Those in power – all white people – need to be ready to give it up and change the system they benefit from. Peace ☮️
Thanks for that info DF. It explains the confusion I feel about living in regional Australian Queensland.
I attended a first aid seminar a while ago. As I was living on the bay I was concerned about sea warming and being stung by the deadly Irikangi. I had a feeling that this would be an issue in a few years.
So I asked the teacher and she told me that Aborigines were being stung and laughed. But it is not known. I felt stunned,upset, angry and sad. No one cared. And this is normalised.
It is what not is said.
I am living twin cities where George Floyd was killed and over 425 buildings have been damaged many of them burned to the ground, including the oldest science fiction bookstore in America. The police are too busy brutalizing peaceful protesters and the press to deal with any of it apparently. I have Saturn conjunct Pluto in the first house trine my Moon North Node conjunction natally and for all the evil I have faced in my life, and I do not use the word evil lightly, there is no other word for what happened to George, it has always led to a truly positive transformation. We can a see that in the thousands of people around the world have shown up in solidarity. In our city 25,000 bags of food were donated, so many people are guarding their neighborhoods and volunteering to clean up and rebuild, and a civil rights investigation has been launched into the police department which has been sorely needed. The only way for us to deal with our shadow is to shine light on it and try to understand it. We are doing that now, so I have hope.
‘Peaceful demonstraters tear gassed in front of White House so Trump could pose for photo with a Bible’.
NYTimes.
I read a post written by the reverend of that Episcopal church. He was totally repudiating Trump- it was beautifully written describing outrage that he was using the Bible in a photo op while tear gassing protesters to clear the grounds in a flagrant misuse of religion ( he said it better than me but I am paraphrasing 🙂 )
This alone should make any hangers-on to morally drop him. But it doesn’t, which is a true threat. Yesterday I voted in the primaries in my state and there was a woman posing with her children for a picture next to a giant Trump sign. How can you possibly support this sickness less than 24 hours after his clear attempts to divide and conquer the people by force?
Honestly. it blows my mind how wildly delusional some people (half the population) are. It’s like they are absolutely not seeing what is right in front of them, cannot see it. don’t want to see it.
Maybe because the whole world has Profoundly changed and they see him as some symbol of the past supremacy. That ‘make America great again’ slogan is so insidious…
I am deeply unsettled In my core by all this- such tectonic, Plutonian forced playing out now
Agree. The vote down was cos towards our complete failure of a leader and the processes used to preserve his power.
The New York Times arrives digitally every day bar one due to time difference. Of Trump being to blame for the rise of white supremacy and inciting violence there is no doubt. The man is evil incarnate.Arrogant augumentive abusive authoritarian for starters. They say the health of the royal family in England is symbolic of the health of the people, if so then it also applies to UsofA. Health being mental as well as physical. A journalist said to me ‘America is getting what it deserves’. That’s rough but maybe this is The Cleansing.
Sadly looting cheesecakes and wine isn’t a good look for a revolution but a line has been crossed for the last time in the attitude of police regarding the treatment of black Americans.
The standard of entry into the force is minimal, so the intelligence of officers is as well. How to be terrified just being stopped for driving offence? Minneapolis police are trigger happy it seems with whites as well if you remember the Australian yoga teacher being shot.
Trust police? I wish, being charged for ‘carrying an offensive weapon,’ a large garden broom, when it was ME that was assaulted with fractured cheekbone bruised eyes and nose. The assaulter, a woman lied and cried during police interview. Apparently a hamburger can be an offensive weapon if you were going to push it down someone’s throat. Of course i was cleared as had requested trial. A total travesty. It could have been a $10K fine and/or 6 months prison.
No white privilege there, but at least the police had to pay the 8K legal fees incurred due to their error in judgement. Had though of police as protectors until then. Excuse me making this about me but it shows how they can get it very wrong in Australia also and i was well dressed well spoken and 64 yo at the time. She was a toothless tatoo-ed (badly) Virgo fag hag, staying at Demented Virgo neighbours house at time. (Some may remember this).Fuqing meth heads, their teeth fall out and they cry when coming down to emotionally manipulate you.
My memory of ‘the old days ‘about police was that they were gentlemen who one could turn to if needed and did! Then there were the days of Heads & Feds in the early 70’s.They were also respectful. Again i say vetting into police force needs to be raised as a part solution surely.
Apologies this is so long winded -writing it with my morning coffee.
Totes Pegs, just the thought of Queensland Police makes my hackles rise!! There was even a song about them…
What’s the song? I live in Qld.
Rodney Rude, (so of course language warning) re: the higher up cops in the Fitzgerald Inquiry
Trust all is copacetic in your world Veronica.
Remember when living in Sydney 70’s horror stories about Boggo Road QLD. Many surfer friends came from Northern NSW and had been badly treated for spliffing, beaten.Yes QLD boys in blue not a pleasant bunch.
We don’t have it as crazy as UsofA thank the heavens.
Thanks Veronica.
Thank you for this post. I know you try to keep the conversation in the comments from turning ugly, but it really helps to get your take on this. I’m super keen to get your take on Australia. There are so many similarities, but also key differences that will keep things from playing out in the same way.
Thank you so much for this post.
love when you share stuff like this xox thankyou!
I really appreciate your reflections here. Thank u
Plutorose, this is a very thoughtful and insightful piece you have written. Thank you, and I feel grateful for our political system here in Australia where change from the top can seem to happen so much more easily than the US. Seems to me many a president has tried to instigate changes to the social or judicial system and got nowhere because of the political set-up. Take care.
Great post. Thank you.
I love your icon/drawing !
Thank you for the post. The energy is deep and dark, and it helps to have places to go. The rot has always been there but it’s at a critical mass and must be cleansed. Like Calli G said it’s baked in. No matter what we think we know (I am not a POC), we must listen, educate, and think. And change.
Electro just wrote about CLEANSING. Snap!
Man, this full moon is going to be 2 degrees from my Sag Moon Neptune and I feel it so hard. I hope the cleansing comment didn’t come off wrong, I have silly old Saturn with Mercury in my 10th and I’m always concerned about the way I express myself. Pluto through my third is def rattling that throat chakra though.
This is totally diluting the conversation we as a collective need to have. Diluting and poisoning.
Thank you for the astrological viewpoint, we need more real talk right now and I agree about the Neptune opposition. Living so far outside the ideology, preaching years of propaganda and denial. Its an incredible hypocrisy. A delusion, not just the heavy Pluto themes coming to light.
So this is what a pluto return is like? Here I was thinking this is one of the better ‘presents’ of the Saturn/Pluto conjunction. The foundations of the US of A are African slavery and Native Genocide, so I guess this was a long time coming.
Long time. All colonisation is slavery and native genocide. Just if you stop instead of rebrand it and claim you are the hero.
Ummmm you do know you’re preaching to the choir, right?
Thank you for this Mystic. There will be no peace for any of us without justice for all of us.
You have a really flowery way of gaslighting Black people and justifying institutional racism. I see what you did there.
To every story there is great depth and difficult aspects to hear. Thank you for giving this part of the whole. My wish is that change will occur at this time and that all souls will be released from the burdens of difference. I wish grace in the hearts of all souls to all souls.
America’s original sins are slavery, genocide, and Manifest Destiny which became American Exceptionalism. Too many of us either fail or refuse to realize this country was built on the backs and with the blood of those they overruled and marginalized; this includes the White underclass such as the poor and those in the past deemed as undesirable (any group not Protestant or Anglo-Saxon).
I think now is the time we are facing it and it does not look pretty. The sooner we can get over this collective denial, the sooner we can start to make moves to heal this, but no, too many people have too much to lose if this happens. I think the people who have the most to lose will put up the biggest and worse part of the fight (read: those like the protesters who entered the Michigan capitol building with semi-automatic weapons and were outfitted like they were either going hunting or to a battlefield).
This past February, I had to report for jury duty for our courts. I live in a diverse area, and not one of the Blacks in the jury pool wanted to serve. We had the case of Corey Jones, a stranded Black motorist who was chased and killed by a plainclothes cop with a shaky performance and psychological profile, and most of them cited that or their personal beliefs to not serve. Very few want to do jury duty, but to me, it showed how little faith they rightfully had towards the current justice system (and jury duty promises a review by citizens represented by the community, and yet these potential jurors didn’t feel they had a place or voice).
So with all of this in mind, Happy Pluto Return, America! I’ll close this on these notes:
1. Mystic alluded to a message she got where she saw the Sun’s reflection, and she was told it was armor. Well, that sounds like law enforcement in riot gear (those on the front lines usually have plexiglass shields).
2. The first person to die in the American Revolutionary War (or at least one of the first) was someone named Crispus Attucks. If you don’t know who he is, look it up; it’s also very Plutonian. If he was the first, then maybe what is happening will be the second.
I would think that the reluctance to do jury duty is because they simply cannot afford the time off. State reimbursement often does not cover travel / expenses and most workplaces are not required to pay for the entire time off. If you have to take said time off, you could be let go. Even in states where that is illegal.
Thank you SO MUCH for writing this post. I understand the need to make this site a safe haven rather than focusing on current affairs and I really do appreciate that. However the brutal, racist murder of George Floyd (and countless other POC) by the police needs to be talked about.
I also love how you as a white person acknowledge your privilege. I unsubscribed from another (white, US) astrologer’s newsletter I received this week as they wrote we are all “exhausted” and some other vague platitudes. No, this is more than about us white people feeling exhausted and is about the very real racism that Black, Indigenous and People of Color face every hour of every day.
Thank you again!
I’m a white-looking person of European descent, born with US citizenship. English is my second language. I have people telling me that I’m a “female immigrant of color” and that “this is my fight too”. Friends are upset that I’m not “utilizing my platform” to speak about this. Today they think publishing a black square on my social media is going to help. It’s like they’re hypnotized.
I don’t appreciate being told who I am, what to do or what to think.
Maybe this isn’t about you.
Please stop seeking my posts just because we disagreed on another comment. Do resist being childish, Sagittarius and all.
You have a sovereign consciousness. Use it as you can or will in this moment. Do not be bullied.
You must live in the whitest WASP neighbourhood ever
I only live in the US part-time. Lived everywhere from small rural towns in the south to NYC, and the friends I have gathered are from all over.
As a black American reading this is EXTREMELY hurtful. Some Americans are looking for every reason to excuse themselves from fighting the racism and brutality inherent in American law, politics and foundation.
I see things I like this and wonder if white Americans, especially those from the South, are purposely forgetting Jim Crow, the KKK and lynching – all legally sanctioned activities White Americans used to police Black people until 1970.
By KKK I mean law enforcement officers and other community leaders covered in white sheets burning crosses on peoples lawns, burning down churches, and intimidating people until the fled in fear of their lives.
By lynching I mean white men dragging Black men and boys out of their homes, off the street and out of police stations, before trial, and stripping them naked and HANGING them from trees.
Or maybe you’re forgetting the less obvious but as insidious racism that was denying Black people the ability to vote until 1965, redlining (aka White Flight which directly correlates to the plight of the inner city), exclusion from the G.I. Bill, the War on Drugs (3 Strikes), the school to prison pipeline.
Maybe spend sometime worrying about the root cause and the stark injustices that transcend police brutality and create the conditions for the violence within the Blacks communities. You’re missing the forest for the trees. The US systematically and continuously disenfranchises people of color.
Also if you have 1 cop willing to kill someone and 3 cops watching you have a corrupt institution. Not necessarily bad people or bad cops – but good people choosing between their jobs, their morals, and their decency because the system is RACIST and demands their silence.
True and powerful words. I am sorry you have to read this delusional attempt to justify racism by willfully ignorant people who have been coasting comfortably and carelessly on a foundation built on injustice and inequality for so long and are now terrified that it may be taken away. Maybe they are unconscious of their motives but many others are aware. Power to you and power to the people. So much love and support to you in this revelatory time. ✊🏼✊🏿✊🏾
The people who crushed George’s chest or watched him slowly suffocate to death begging for his mama while seeming bored for 9 minutes were not good people. I agree with you wholeheartedly on everything else.
@TheNakedEye – I agree. Also, the police force is a hierarchy – not a creative collaboration where you can kind of improvise in the moment. The culture comes from the top.
Arguments about “violent communities” reminds me of how senior church officials, when accused of sexual assault upon now-adult minors, demean the alleged victim. Or pay a fortune for an elite lawyer to do it eloquently.
People – or communities – who suffer trauma that is not only unaddressed but unacknowledged and actively denied by the dominant judicial/cultural paradigm are in survival mode. They don’t have the luxury of “oh good, the police are here.”
I hear you. The above comments are basically thinly veiled “All Lives Matter” or “Blue Lives Matter” BS.
Thank you for writing about this Mystic. I’m an american of mexican parents.
some food for thought:
this is something a person said on an astrology forum. do you think it resonates?
“Saturn was in Aquarius during the LA Riots.
Pluto was in Capricorn during the American Revolution, yet that is also when the country was founded. This is the first Pluto Return of the United States, and astrologers more wise than us would need to deeply study the next few years to see if a ‘revolution’ will occur again.”
another person said the US’s Pluto return will be in 2022. “Pluto is transiting into Aquarius in the next few years, further ushering us into a new age of Aquarius; with any planet, the final degrees of a transit are the most volatile and difficult to handle, but Pluto is especially volcanic. We’re seeing the veil lifted on our secrets and the darker parts of our society writ large and being forced to reconcile with who and what we want to be going forward.
The crux of my argument is this: everything we’re currently fighting against and pushing toward a common, beneficial reform on is a structure that was installed 250 years ago by white men. We want racial justice. We want gender parity. We want economic reform. We want equity in the way it was described in our founding document — liberty and equality for the many, not the few.
Pluto is calling our bluff: are we or aren’t we free? Who do we really want to be?”
i don’t know if these two people would like to have their usernames shared so i haven’t done that. i just think what they said was very eloquent & sound and i wanted to share these words with you all
Relating to this. I’m in Mpls and I am feeling optimistic through the literal wreckage and reckoning because the conversations are being had in every corner. Everyone knows the police union boss’s name now. Everyone has heard about the other stories. People are calling, cleaning, showing up and connecting in a way that this rather distant, repressed and supposed self-sufficient culture (Scandinavian and German settlers, cold winters) always kept at arm’s length. I see a painful and excruciating outcome but I do see it positive ultimately though hard-won. The rural yokels and suburbs will not give up easily but Gen Z is here for it all.
There is so much evidence of Zimmerman being a racist and just an abusive person in general, in the time since he murdered Treyvon. The U.S. had no business in Vietnam. “Hero” cops have the ability to speak out against systemized racism and violence and it is their duty. Your rhetoric is antiquated, delusional and you are on the wrong side of history. Stop talking and read some of the books recommended in this comments thread, please.
There’s the FIre in the Sagittuarean 🙂
Thank you. ❤️
…And the Uranian in the Taurean, who‘s been waiting at the gates of this event in full costume, while everyone else is still frantically going through their wardrobe. Ready when you are!
Don’t even with the Zimmerman thing. Why that asshole is not in jail is beyond proof that the system is corrupt AF.
I am white, middle-class, thin, etc. But 90% of all interactions I’ve had with US police have been abusive, or ended in threats. I was sexually assaulted by an officer when a friend and I were picked up for curfew at age 15. We were punk rockers and told no one would believe someone would want to fuck us. Chicago PD is, obviously, notoriously corrupt.
In San Francisco, I was arrested for defending myself from being strangled by my husband (*I* was the one who’d called the police! and no, they didn’t arrest him–apparently this is a *thing* with women who are strangled–they are often arrested because of the wounds to the back of the strangler’s head which police think means she got away and attacked him….).
Those are simply the most egregious of a long list of ticket stops turning stupid, etc.
I have always blamed this on my Pluto Rising, but anyways cops never like me. When I try to be obsequious, they think I’m being sarcastic. I’m not saying this to say it’s not a racial thing, it is. More it’s that I know from first-hand experience how fucked up they are, so I believe it. It’s no surprise. What IS a surprise is that we keep getting it on camera and no one cares.
Fascinating and so sorry. I too have had weird interchanges with cops but nothing like that. My Virgo is in Pluto in the 6th House… I know there is a part of me if something (written) isn’t perfect I kill it. Very critical Virgo and Scorpio parents… and it kicks up this essence in my chart. I have had 60 years to learn to tame it and take it down a notch. But it is there. This whole Pluto education is fascinating and so important.
That is disgusting, I am so sorry you were assaulted and they had the nerve to arrest you for self defence but I am also not surprised. I was in a hostel when I was 14 trying to avoid this, saw a lot of shit and never saw them help once. I am white, non American now living in Europe- but all of my interactions with the Australian police have been equally as aggressive and unprovoked. I have seen them assault innocent people, use unnecessary force during protests, I have knowledge of them planting drugs, evidence, creating false reports and taking bribes from organised crime (among my own experience and other close sources, my ex´s father was at one time a lawyer for the mafia). I went to school with people who became the police and they were racist, sexist, aggressive assholes already. I can just imagine how well the majority of them turned out. America is this on steroids with GUNS and total unchecked power. Gotta look after your own, right boys?
I started donating to blacklivesmatter last week despite my income being halved because I believe in supporting those on the front line with cash instead of “sending hopes and prayers”. I agree so much re the footage: How can a country who awards lawsuits for spilling a coffee over yourself deemed too hot for consumption and high tech forensic evidence to win difficult cases have a trial with perfectly clear film footage of a man dying in police custody from use of unnecessary force and not rule his death a homicide and charge the officer with negligence and manslaughter? 8 minutes is a long time to decide if cutting off someone´s airway is safe and appropriate. This guy had 17 complaints against him. Land of the free home of the brave my ass.
Similar profile and experiences,so I second this. Have always wondered about the serious problems surrounding the police culture in Australia as well, with personally traumatic wake up calls having to do with widespread corruption and sociopathic/ psychopathic police let loose. When will the force be closely scrutinized and filter out for these dangerous types?!!!?
Similar experiences with Australian cops. I have met a few ‘good’ ones but the system they operate in is broken. My hope is on this nightmare giving them the courage to show leadership like the sheriff in Flint.
‘And i was the one who called the police’ O yes know that one. ‘Want to report a crime and they arrest YOU’.
I feel like I’m living in a house of mirrors at a carnival, where the devil himself is ringmaster. It’s a dark, dangerous time in the US. We have a fool in the highest office of the nation, a deadly virus running rampant through our medical “system”, schools (often a safe haven for kids) are closed, police are armed like the military and are shooting and beating peaceful protesters, and no one is ok. I have to hope (and also act) that we come out the other side of this more compassionate, less racist, less corrupt, and somewhat enlightened. If we don’t, we’re done as a nation.
Your comment is very insightful. Thank you. I’m also in the US and I have lived in the Deep South, in cities with large black populations. You are so correct in saying that violence reflects demographics. It’s sad, and it’s the result of centuries of trauma, and something needs to be done about it, but whatever agenda is being pushed by the rioters is clearly not it.
I hate sounding like a conspiracy theorist but the media really is twisting this to incite more and more violence which at this point is just sinking the US economy even more. George Floyd should not have died. Patrol cars should not be set on fire. The color of your skin shouldn’t skew justice for or against you. Police horses should not be stolen. Thinking for oneself is the most important thing right now.
Human life is more important than property. Oh, but the irony that blacks were once considered property. You really aren’t thinking for yourself. Get real.
Can we disagree without the “you aren’t thinking for yourself”, the “stop talking” and the “get real”? Without demonizing or sowing discord? Because you are creating an argumentative-oppositional mentality of division that is causing the mayhem in the streets.
Looters should deal with the consequences of their greed and misplaced anger away from other people. Especially if they cannot control their emotions long enough to realize they shouldn’t smash stores and steal things.
Also, property supports human life. The food you eat is your property. The bed you sleep on is your property. Your time, which you may choose to give to an employer in exchange of money, is your property. They’re equally important.
I do believe Eris is the goddess of discord, so your request seems untimely.. Nothing I said was demonizing. Human life is more important than property. I am creating a mentality of division? When people have lived in a system of oppression for their whole lives, they might have some unruly emotions about it. Your obsession with “property” won’t change that. Countless humans had their lives stolen by slavery. The USA is stolen land; take that into consideration when you speak of “property”.
Were ONCE considered…….but not now
Thanks for clearing that up for us all.
Also, again from Mpls – after the first day or two, most of the “rioters” creating havoc are not black and many are not from here. They are driving in from the sticks to harass, destroy, create chaos and live out their twisted teenage-now-adult-dreams of violence and revenge. This is not from “Media” Reports but numerous eye witness accounts and video from trusted, sane friends all over the city. These guys use the protestors as cover and are highly organized. Check out Boogaloo Bois (yes with an i) for one example and Blac Bloc for another. P.S. The police did not shoot George Floyd. A cop named Derek Chauvin knelt on the man’s neck for more than 8 minutes, 2 of which Mr Floyd was unconscious. This was done in front of eye witnesses begging him to stop, openly videoing and with 3 other cops there. This is not a shooting. This is very twisted, sadistic power shit from a man with a long record of brutality.
Thank you! This was not a case of shooting in perceived self-defense. This was wanton, sadistic disregard for human life.
Also, living in Portland and having many first-hand reports of the protests, it is indeed the Proud Boys/Boogaloo Bois type white men who are initiating the looting in many cases. Hell, there was even a cop who was outed by his ex-wife on social media for breaking the windows of an Auto Zone while protestors pleaded with him to stop.
This all makes me sick. The slave ship called “The White Lion” is like a rotten cherry on top of all this… I’m grateful for you and all the influencers and business owners in social media who have shed light on this topic today. Living as a white person in a very small, distant and white country, these issues are not “in my face” but I can not stay ignorant and uneducated in my little white bubble anymore. If anything, I need to reach my hand even further towards my fellow Earth citizens who are being oppressed!
Thank you for writing this post, for your insight, honesty & solidarity.
There’s so much racism baked into the US (I’m speaking as a white American, for whatever that’s worth). Yes, there’s institutionalized violence and legalized police murder. But also dire poverty, medical mal- and under-treatment (the maternal mortality rates for African American women are terrible), and a school-to-prison pipeline that basically creates another form of legalized slavery. All aimed at non-white people. I hope the protests will help us all push through this toward a less terrible future.
Agree 100% As as a white American, I’m silently scrolling through my privileged history, wondering what advantages my race gave me and took from someone else. I’m not even conscious of it, which is in and of itself a problem. Self-examination is painful, but it’s the only path forward .
Highly recommend “The American Nightmare” by Ibram X. Kendi dated June 1, 2020 in The Atlantic.
Also very highly recommended: “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander. Well researched, and chilling.
I’m worried about the protests. Lighting businesses on fire in cities where most of the service workers are Black is not the answer.
As if you have an answer.
Sagittaurean are you in a bad mood or something?
No justice, no peace. Unless you’re a sociopath or racist….
I’ve heard the looting is done NOT by the protesters but by others from other areas who drive in and take advantage of the chaotic scene … of course, the good old news division with its old adage “IF IT BLEEDS, IT LEADS” is in full force these days. My folks (white) got robbed (2x) and there was blood below the window broken into. The cops said it was too expensive to pick up fingerprints. Huh?
claro, but what are facts anyway
Clearly, every other way they‘ve approached it for 250 years wasn‘t the answer either. Maybe it‘s on US to come up with and bring forth the answer? Maybe you have the answer, given you are able to identify what it is not?
This is deep, Mystic. It seems that even the cosmos is compelling America to confront it’s (our) deeply-rooted dysfunction. Thank you for sharing and acknowledging and holding space for us here (including those of us who face this reality every day).
Thank you for writing about this and for being so honest. X