http://www.opednews.com/articles/life_a_c_l___pa_080214_across_the_universe_3a.htm
by C.L. Pagano
2/14/08
ACROSS THE UNIVERSE:
THE BEATLES, THE 60'S AND COSMIC CLOCKWORK
With Obama stirring up everyone's hopes with his charismatic vision
and presence (he is a Leo, so it comes naturally) plus the added
glamour of the Kennedy clan passing on JFK's torch to him; with the
war in Iraq echoing the war in Vietnam; with the call for CHANGE
getting louder and louder, is it any wonder that pundits are
comparing or downplaying the echoes to the 60s we're all feeling?
I don't know about you, but I lived through the 60s and I just know
they're back! It's a feeling, it's the similarities of social unrest
– and it's something more cosmic. I know it because among the many
things I do, I am an astrologer. I know that a cycle that began in
the mid-60s is coming up to its first crisis point in 2010 and some
of the planets that formed that cycle are now transiting the degrees
that were so important for the 60s. These energies are stirring up
the pot – change is in the air. But what are we going to do about it?
Because all the good energy in the world can go to waste unless We
The People do something. And that especially includes our Artists,
for they can give us a deep perspective on what's happening to us and
to the culture.
Now before you reject the idea that Astrology has any pertinence to
this energy of change we're feeling, please read on. My astrologer
friend Caroline Casey says, "Believe nothing. Entertain
possibilities! Astrology is not a belief system; it is a [symbolic]
language of the dynamic interplay between our interior life and the
exterior world." All we can do in the face of the immensity of life
is to entertain possibilities. Why not imagine, for a moment, that
these possibilities exist? That we are connected to our planet, to
our solar system, to our galaxy, to each other. Scientists know that
we are affected by the Solar cycle of sunspot activity as well as by
the Moon's cycle. And did you know that most of Western
civilization's greatest philosophers and scientists were also
astrologers? Check it out for yourselves.
But before I talk more about the astrological influences of our
times, I want to say that Julie Taymor's brilliant movie "Across the
Universe" brought me right back to the 60s on a visceral level. This
movie could have come right out of John Lennon's imagination: the
movie could have been made by the Beatles – it has the feel of who
they were and what they did together. So if John and George are
listening from the Beyond, and to Paul and Ringo, I want to thank the
Fab Four for giving us another chance to really hear their music and
amazing lyrics, and re-visit their music's significance for all our
lives during those wonderful, turbulent, tumultuous years.
First, though, I want to talk about the archetype of the Bard,
because we need to understand why our artists are so important to our
lives and to these times of change. Archetypes are the patterns that
shape our human consciousness. They are the images of the instincts
that make us human. The archetype of the Bard acknowledges our
collective need to understand ourselves through images, to give
coherence to our lives through stories and song. And because of that
need within humanity, some people resonate with this archetype and
are called to became the storytellers of their tribes. Bards help
shape their societies by singing about the shared values of the
tribe, teaching the next generation about their duties, their
capabilities, and their place in the world. Stories from the desert
speak of the need to share everything, for otherwise no one survives
in the harsh landscape. The stories of the Celts shaped their view of
warriors as being sensitive, boastful, brave and honorable.
Troubadours of the Middle Ages shaped their society through their
songs of courtly love. Bards are the ones who remember, the poets,
the news-givers, the truth-speakers, and the visionaries of their
people who see the truths of their times and give their people a
perspective on them.
All ancient peoples had someone who represented this archetype of the
Bard, the storyteller, the singer of songs. In those societies, Bards
were highly honored, and they had the power and the responsibility to
influence their people's beliefs. In our modern culture, our singers
and storytellers are still honored with money and fame, although not
many are worthy of being called True Bards. Those who are in it for
the money and fame are the ones we call entertainers. Because most
entertainers don't take their responsibilities as Bards seriously, we
sometimes forget that our artists really have this power to teach us
about our world, for the power of the Bard resides in the Imagination.
Each of us can tell our own stories, but it takes someone bigger to
shape and recreate our collective story. That someone, or someones,
is the True Bard. That's exactly what the Beatles did for us in the
60s. They were True Bards because their music still speaks to new
generations. And so is Julie Taymor, the amazing director who created
this Beatles rock opera "Across the Universe". This movie re-awakens
us to our collective story of change that we experienced in the 60s.
It says, our story is still with us. The question is, what are we
going to do about it?
If you haven't seen "Across the Universe" yet , run out and rent it
right now. Besides its considerable high production values – the
settings, the dances, the costumes, the feel make it delightfully
magical to watch! - it simply tells the story of the 60s as it
unfolded within our psyches to the soundtrack of the Beatles' music.
Their music shaped my consciousness as well as expressed what was
going on inside me and everyone else I knew. And now my children and
anyone else who loves the Beatles but weren't there for themselves
can see how those times might have played out in our lives.
The story itself is simple and fun, yet complex and psychologically
astute. If it was a novel, I'd call it an historical fantasy. Part
Beatle images and lyrics (one character says of another, "She crept
in through the bathroom window."); part semi-biographical (Sadie as a
Janis Joplin character/Bono as a Timothy Leary/merry prankster
character/a band playing music on a rooftop); part social commentary
(draftees in formation carrying a Statue of Liberty on their
shoulders are they trudge through the jungles of a miniature Vietnam
singing "She's so heavy" from "I Want You"). "Across the Universe"
has it all. The raw emotions of the songs come out through the
acting. It's a mesmerizing mix of social commentary and youthful
longing, hope and love.
Taymor's use of imagery is symbolically astute. The movie opens with
images of wildly breaking ocean waves superimposed with images of
social unrest, and then a young woman – Lucy, the love interest. Many
people have dreams of tidal waves, and one of the symbolic meanings
of these dreams is that the collective unconscious is stirring – all
of our culture's repressed values and needs are rising up and
overwhelming collective consciousness. And the beautiful young woman
is an image of the New Feminine Spirit that is arising in the
collective unconscious – a spirit that demands that we pay attention
to the repressed feminine qualities of life – connection, compassion,
intuition, feelings, nurturing, love and life. Taymor ends the movie
with a heartfelt cry of "All You Need Is Love." The rest of the story
shows us how this is played out.
The story itself is true to the 60s. An all-American teenager, Lucy
(Evan Rachel Wood), leaves home to follow her older brother Max (Joe
Anderson) to New York after her boyfriend dies in the Vietnam War. In
Liverpool, Jude (Jim Sturgess) leaves his work in the shipyards and
comes to New York and meets Max, and they all end up living at singer
Sadie's (Dana Fuchs) Greenwich Village apartment along with JoJo and
Prudence. This youthful 'family' experiences the turbulence of the
60s together. There's naïve Lucy whose eyes are opened to the
possibilities of life beyond her 50s, sheltered upbringing;
adventurous Brit Jude who breaks away from his working-class roots to
make it as an artist in New York; Lucy's brother, Max, a college
dropout who eventually gets drafted and sent to Vietnam; Sadie, a
Janis Joplin-esque rock singer; her guitar-playing lover Jo-Jo, who
comes from the riot-torn streets of Detroit; and a closet lesbian
named Prudence. As these sympathetic characters go through the ups
and downs of life in the 60's, we share their growing consciousness
that the most important thing in life is LOVE. I left the movie
feeling and knowing that this is still True!
Now it's time for the astrology! I'm using information from an
amazing, award-winning book called "Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of
a new World View" by Richard Tarnas, a professor of philosophy and
depth psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in
San Francisco. Tarnas spent 30 years researching astrology, (at first
to debunk it!) and came away with the view that there is a direct
connection between planetary movements and the archetypal patterns of
human experience. He explores the planetary cycles and how they play
out in human cultural events.
In the 60s, two planets aligned in the heavens in the sign of Virgo –
Pluto, the planet that represents the archetypal energy of death,
re-birth and evolution, and Uranus, the archetypal energy of
revolution, innovation and freedom. They were joined during the exact
conjunction in 1966 by an opposition from the planet Saturn,
representing the archetypal energy of form, authority, maturity,
frustration, and constriction in Pisces, the sign of the collective
unconscious. In 2010, these three planets will again be in alignment,
expect now in a three-sided 90 degree aspect to each other. The
alignment is one of tension which propels us into action.
Tarnas states: "I was encouraged to examine the possible existence of
historical correlations with planetary cycles when I encountered a
number of highly suggestive patterns in which certain cyclical
alignments between the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,
Neptune and Pluto) coincided with major historical events and
cultural trends of a distinctive character, as if the specific
archetypes associated with those planets were emerging on the
collective level in periodic cycles." (pg. 141, C&P)
Because of the great distance of both Pluto and Uranus from the Sun
and the Earth, their cycle is one of the longest between two planets,
lasting anywhere from 113 to 142 years (because of Pluto's erratic
orbit). When Tarnas went back to study what happened during
proceeding conjunctions and oppositions of these two planets, he
found that each time there were similarities of cultural expression –
back to the times of Spartacus in ancient Rome!
What Tarnas found was that the archetypal principles related to these
two planet found full expression in the 60s. The planet Uranus
correlates to Promethean characteristics: "emancipatory, rebellious,
progressive and innovative, awakening, disruptive and destabilizing,
unpredictable, serving to catalyze new beginnings and sudden
unexpected change." The planet Pluto is associated with Dionysian
characteristics: "elemental, instinctual, powerfully compelling,
extreme in its intensity, arising from the depths, both libidinal and
destructive, overwhelming and transformative, ever-evolving...
possessing a prodigious, titanic dimension, empowering, intensifying
and compelling in whatever it touches on a massive scale."(pg.142, C&P)
Each time these two planetary energies synergistically merge, they
produce "widespread radical social and political change and often
destructive upheaval, massive empowerment of revolutionary and
rebellious impulses, and intensified artistic and intellectual
creativity. Other distinctive themes of these historical periods
included unusually rapid techniological advance, an underlying spirit
of restless experiment, drive for innovation, urge for freedom in
many realms, revolt against oppression, embrace of radical political
philosophies and intensified collective will to bring forth a new
world. " (pg. 144, C&P)
Not only were these planets in a conjunction alignment during the
1960s, they were also in conjunction from 1845-1856, when there was a
wave of revolutionary upheavals across Europe, China, Japan, India
and the Ottoman Empire. When these two planets were in the opposition
alignment from 1896 to 1907, many social and political movements were
born – progressive labor movements, the Women's movement, the black
civil rights movement and the beginnings of socialism. Before that,
another opposition took place during the decade of the French
Revolution, 1787 to 1798. The word "revolution' came into "wide use
in the 1790s in its present meaning of sudden radical change of an
overwhelming nature, bringing into being a fundamentally new
condition." (Pg 144, C&P).
The revolutionary impulse during all the 60s and the French
Revolution wasn't confined to politics, but occurred in every aspect
of cultural life: "in the music heard, the books read, the ideas
discussed, the ideals embraced, the images produced, the evolution of
language and fashion, the radical changes in social and sexual mores.
It was visible in the incessant challenge to established beliefs and
widespread embrace of new perspectives, the movements for radical
theological and church reform and anti religious revolt, the drive
towards innovation and experiment that affected all the arts, the
sudden empowerment of the young, the pivotal role of university
communities in the rapid cultural shift. And it was evident above all
in the prodigious energy and activism of both eras, the general
impulse towards extremes and 'radicalization' in so many areas, the
suddenly intensified will to construct a new world." (P. 145, C&P)
Without making me trace the historical evidence back to the
revolution of Spartacus, let's just say that these facts do point to
a possible correlation between astrology and world events. If so
(please at least entertain the possibilities) what do we have to look
forward to in the next few years?
First, understand that the 60s was not a unique cultural event that
will never be repeated. It is being repeated now, on a higher level,
if you will. Pluto and Uranus are about to come to their first square
aspect – like the quarter moon phase of the lunar cycle. A square is
a challenge – a call to action. If we are not living in such a time,
I don't know when that would be. What will make it even more
challenging is that the planets will be in Cardinal signs – the signs
that signify the Solstices and Equinoxes. So it will be dynamic and
energized – and important to get right. We will have to change the
way our culture does business, by reigning in corporate power. We
will have to grow up and become responsible, both as individuals and
as a nation. We will have to treat the rest of the human race, and
other nations, as our equals. We might even have to take to the
streets again. If we do, the cosmic energies will be with us.
Are you ready?
Earlier I said that these two planets were transiting over the
degrees of the 60s conjunction. The Uranian/Promethean wake-up call
is ringing in our minds, hearts and souls as we've witnessed the
Plutonian revelations of truth about our government, our religious
beliefs and our technological advances.
And our artists are waking up and telling us the stories we need to
hear so we can imagine what this new phase of the 60s revolution
might look like.
Julie Taymor's wonderful movie " Across the Universe" should be at
the top of your list!
---
Cathy Pagano, M.A., C.E.C, is a Jungian Psychotherapist and Mythic
Astrologer as well as an Individuation Coach and Archetypal Story
Coach. Cathy works with the tools of the imagination - dreams,
alchemy, myths, astrology, storytelling, ritual - to awaken the
Soul's wisdom. She knows that if we are going to change the world,
each of us needs to live out our destiny and contribute our gifts to
the collective culture. She helps people do that. She also believes
that our writers and artists must take up our responsibility to
create art that inspires, teaches and heals our humanity. Cathy
writes about political, psychological/spiritual, and cultural issues.
To find out more about Cathy's work, check out her websites:
www.wisdom-of-astrology.com, www.9muses.biz, www.starofthebards.com
and www.imaginecoachingservices.com. Please contact Cathy if you are
interested in her services and have any questions. If anyone is
interested in creating community political action using artistic
means - storytelling, ritual, etc - and you need help with your
vision, please let me know. I'd love to help.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment