The Astrological Face of Facebook

 

As an astrologer, the first thing one looks at in a chart is ‘where’s the Sun?’.

In the case of Facebook, that Sun is at 6 Leo, a degree known for high energy, a competitive nature and grace of generosity when things are going its way.

 Facebook, Inc (a Delaware corporation)

July 29, 2004

Difficulties and insecurities pertaining to 6 Leo as a degree are generally met with defensiveness and arrogance. There’s a lot of pressure to continue being the best with this degree and a self-reflective quality which in good times keeps all on even keel.

Insecurity and ‘perceived threats’ are a problem where 6 Leo is concerned. So we might be tempted to just say ‘Facebook is this huge, successful social network – no problem!’, right?

Uh, yes. Well, except for a couple of things. For one, the Sun of this chart is in exact conjunction to Sisyphus, an asteroid which harkens back to the Greek story about a highly intelligent type of guy who would welcome people into his home (perhaps digital?) and then murder anyone who contradicted him.

As for the Moon of this chart, that's in Capricorn and  the third house, conjunct Icarus no less. Moon in Capricorn is always subject to pressure and Icarus is all about leaping before one looks. So while this would be very consistent with the chart of a corporation all about innovating the times, it may also be a corporation which speaks before everything is thought through - or which thinks it can do more than it really can or should do.

With this Moon conjunct Vega, there is definitely a charismatic quality to the ‘Facebook appeal,’ one further heightened by charismatic Vega being conjunct nurturing and protective if somewhat domineering Juno, patron goddess of household, hearth and family. This reflects the wholesome vibe so many find in Facebook.

And yet, it pays to remember Juno's further story. She's Zeus/Jupiter’s wife – remember that part? So while Juno is absolutely protective, she also has a temper. Everything fine until Juno feels betrayed - usually by hubby Zeus, her "trusted partner." When betrayed, the mythical Juno goes around transforming people in to trees and rocks and other helplessly mute objects.

Plus, there is to remember that this is the chart of a corporation, not a person, right? This third house of thought and communication is powerfully expressed: Pluto at 19 Sagittarius conjunct the 16 Sagittarius cusp is an accurate expression of Facebook’s amazing world-wide draw. When your social networking site hosts kings and presidents – you’re it! You’re in!

An artist's rendition of the view from Pluto's solid methane

coated surface. With co-orbiting Charon close at hand,

Pluto here looks towards a Sun which is so far away its light

is 1,000 fainter on Pluto than on Earth.

Courtesy of ESO (European Southern Observatory) 

And yet we look at the ruler of this 3rd house Sag cusp (Jupiter) and we find the big red planet where…? In the very social and societal 11th house. Very proper. But in Virgo and in conjuncting Hel, Atlantis and MakeMake? Hel and Atlantis may well represent ‘are you on Facebook yet?’ social pressures to join with everyone else. There are many who are reluctant to join and yet who when they finally do join, enjoy Facebook to the hilt!

But does Facebook take too much time? Do people get lost in the virtual social world to the detriment of their real-time social world and maybe even their day-to-day social obligations? Maybe. With Jupiter in Virgo, is Facebook becoming a ‘necessity’ to those who want to get something done in the world – are we nobody and nothing if we’re NOT on Facebook? Again, maybe. But if so, what exactly does that make Facebook? Or what does that make us as people who would depend on Facebook…and why would we depend on something like Facebook connections to begin with, seeing as Facebook guarantees nothing about us (good or bad) apart from our ability and willingness to set up a profile?

And yes…there is the fact that so far, this ‘worldwide phenomenon’ is greatly a US, Canada, UK and Indonesian phenomenon. Is that the world?

With the Mars of this chart at 22 Leo in the 10th house of social status and business but very much conjunct the 23 Leo 11th house cusp of income and social acceptance, Facebook is asked to be sensitive to its users. There is temptation expressed here that the corporation may overreach the bounds of ‘offering a service’ to become “too involved.”

There is, of course, the other side of this coin to consider too - that Facebook may become a means by which others become "too involved" in cyberspace activities or in connections or cyberspace statements.

 The entrance to Facebook's Palo Alto, California offices.

photo credit: Coolcaesar (May 2009)

With Leo being ruled by the Sun – this may be where we see which side of Sisyphus comes out: will  Facebook be the protective host who knows much but never takes advantage of their guests? Or will Facebook become the host who kills the guest who dares contradict or criticize them? Only time will tell!

In this 11th corporate house we have Ceres at 29 Leo, conjunct fixed star Regulus at 28 with Circe…and Panacea at 29 – a warning. Regulus is a ‘royal’ star. And like all royal stars it promises success if one human trait is avoided. The human trait here: revenge.

But then there’s the idea that Regulus is conjunct Circe. And who is Circe? She’s a sorceress. Circe is so lonely and so wants people to stay with her that she casts spells on them, turning them into animals which cannot speak against her.

As for Panacea, Panacea is ‘making nice’ and ‘making peace.’ With Ceres conjunct Panacea, we can hope every effort will always be made (internally) to hold the corporation to a high level of altruism and concern for it’s ‘customers’ (users and advertisers alike). But with said influence being in combination with the Regulus/Circe issue we talked about? It's surely a comment (or yet another comment) on what Facebook is capable of doing...against what Facebook knows is right or wrong to do.

And there is that ootchy little issue of Ceres and Panacea being at 29 degrees. Objects at 29 degrees of any sign denote “critical issues.” And that truly underscores the need for Ceres nurturing of peaceful (Panacea) attitudes, both on the part of the company AND its users. And that this issue is going to get tested, probably on a regular basis.

And not the least of Facebook’s problems is likely to come from employees. Why would we say that? We would say that because of Vesta (service), Astropos (endings) and Scheat (bad reception/rejection) in the 6th house.

In general, 6th house effects are known by the slogan health, work, service. So in a personal chart they're  responsibilities, duty, the job, cleaning, paying bills, keeping up with health stuff - all the 'must do' things. But when you get to the chart of an entity...say a country or a company? Then the 6th becomes those who do the work of that country or company. Nations have their civil servants and their military...and companies have their employees, reps and all that.

Vesta meaning 'sacred duty' in the 6th would be the 'loyal employee' who does 'sacred' duty. But add in Atropos (endings) and you get....what? You get those who have been terminated. Add in Scheat, that fixed star all about 'nasty reputations' and 'rejection of facts' and we get a pretty good picture of what may happen. (Plus...remember that 'betrayal by partner' Juno thing?)

This idea that there will be stormy Facebook waters on a periodic basis is also echoed by Mercury. Positioned in the 11th in early Virgo and not only conjunct the whole Ceres-Panacea-Regulus group but also conjunct Athena, Eurydike and Thuban – this last being a fixed star known for being one giant, pain in the low back headache. (Yes, just try envisioning that one….)

We have already heard a little about age controls and such in the social networking world from some issues over at My Space. But with Uranus conjunct Byblis in the 5th house of this chart, Facebook will do well do be highly vigilant but not invasive when it comes to under-aged behavior in general and with a specific eye to pedophiles. Byblis is an asteroid which in the general sense is about the attempt to ‘justify’ that which is not accepted. In the specific however, it pertains to incest and by associated implications, pedophilia.

And to turn this concept around, this would also point to how children act. Or things done in a 'childish spirit' online with a lack of 6th house morality/responsibility, perhaps particularly with regards to 6th house figures, which on this level - thinking of Facebook as a social (societal) network suggests not just 'employees' (though they are certainly on any list here but civil servants, members of the military, members of governments and health care workers - plus anyone who would be responsible for maintenance and/or upkeep of societal 'infrastructure.'

Think that's a big group? It is. But then, Facebook is a pretty broad spectrum platform - metaphysically, they do go together!

 Byblis (alternate spelling: Biblis) 

by William Adolphe Bouguereau (1884)

With this pairing in the 5th house – a house associated with entertainment, Uranus in Pisces makes Facebook a great place for fan sites and promoting films, music and the like. But since the 5th house is also the house of children and dating, this is a pretty sure marker of pedophile activities which given Uranus as the main symbol, appear suddenly with substantial disruptive effect.

Rigel the teacher star is at the 9th house cusp of this chart – Facebook knows how to get its name out there. Yet with earning-force Venus at 22 conjunct the difficult fixed star influence Bellatrix financial revenue of the classic kind (advertising) would not be expected to be super-strong for Facebook. And indeed, as reported in the Wikipedia article on same:

“Facebook generally has a lower clickthrough rate (CTR) for advertisements than most major websites…(sic)…while Google users click on the first advertisement for search results an average of 8% of the time (80,000 clicks for every one million searches), Facebook's users click on advertisements an average of 0.04% of the time (400 clicks for every one million pages).” (source notes are available at Wikipedia’s page on Facebook)

But do we know all that Facebook does? Probably not. There are two forms of Lilith in the chart – the personal and the societal. Either form represents denial: the personal being what we don’t want to know about ourselves and the societal being what we don’t want to recognize about society OR what society fails to recognize about us.

The societal form (often known as ‘Black Moon Lilith’) is here pictured at 29 Gemini – which puts it right in there with Betelgeuse, a star all about ease of operation. Again, we have a chart point at 29 degrees, so what Facebook doesn’t want to know about the world or what the world doesn’t know about Facebook, both are lessons (Rigel/9th house) which will in time be learned.

How will they be learned? They’ll be learned through the Mercury in Virgo we started to look at. Athena is wisdom – Facebook plainly knows how to do what it does and the intellectual rights and wrongs (i.e., the law). With Athena conjunct Eurydike and Thuban, there is a headache of debate about the price (Eurydike) one needs to pay for anything in this world.

What this whole train like as not applies to, considering how powerful and financially successful Facebook is in spite of its low clickthrough rates…that’s probably about how much information Facebook collects from and about its users. And yes, what it does with that.

The highest planet in this chart is Saturn at 19 Cancer. That Saturn is very much in opposition to Chiron at 22 Capricorn, with Capricorn being ruled by Saturn giving us an ‘it’s not me, it’s him!’ effect. The bottom of the chart in this kind of corporation is ‘the populace’ – the public interest and ‘base’ without which Facebook is just a ton of server space. We can always expect the legal argument (Saturn is in 9, realm of all things argued in court)… we can expect a ‘people need to read the fine print’ defense if this ever becomes a problem. And that’s already been noted by several who have had issues with Facebook holding on to their information when they wanted to leave the network.

 Planet Saturn, showing auroras at both poles

photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Even closer by aspect though is the hard square from Saturn at 19 Cancer to Eris in 7 at 20 Aries. Eris is social reform and/or social disruption. This square tells us that this is an enormously powerful company which by its creation has begun a social “revolution.” But it’s one thing to be with the people and another to have the people not with you – and that’s something Facebook will need to remember. With Sedna at 19 Taurus conjunct universalist Sappho in a positive sextile to Saturn and an uncomfortable, ego bruising semi-sextile to Aries, so long as the ‘vocal majority’ of users is content, Facebook is like as not, golden. Should that ever change, Facebook will need to let go of its image of itself and evolve, as we have pictured in the story of Sedna.

And yes, you may want to read the full post on Sedna to see how this works.

Has Facebook not become it’s full and mature self? Considering it was ‘born’ in 2004, probably not!

It is certainly interesting to note how the film The Social Network all about the founding and rise of Facebook was released on October 1, 2010 after a couple of months of hard promotion. Why is that interesting? Well…. remember the July 2010 Solar Eclipse? That eclipse was positioned at 19 Cancer – right smack dab on Facebook’s corporate Saturn.

Then there’s the January 2011 Solar Eclipse at 13 Capricorn, soon after Facebook has had…well, a bit of a software facelift, which is an interesting reflection of said eclipse occurring atop Facebook’s corporate Juno-Vega-Moon – suggesting a ‘changing with the times’ aimed at keeping users happily intrigued by software to play with as a means of expressing themselves in more fulfilling ways.

The second of the 2011 mid-year Solar Eclipses will be at 9 Cancer – directly opposite Facebook’s Moon. That this comes when Pluto has already begin moving over Facebook’s corporate Moon speaks to a metamorphic evolution of the site, the company and its functionality, so we will need to wait and see where Facebook goes. And how it plays it’s Sun/Sisyphus card.

It’s hard not to think it doesn’t – in the end – all come down to that.

P.S. I'm not on Facebook. Is that forever? Who knows! But so far, Facebook has started 2011 just fine without me!