The Age of Aquarius: Money and Power, Money as Power

 

 The Zodiacal Wheel of Aquarian Age

In the chart of any given Astrological Age, the sign

for which the Age is name appears on the Ascendant

(here at left and color-coded to the frame). This denotes

that sign as 'acting' (1st house) to 'set a standard' and a 

goal which is to be learned about and struggled with

throughout the duration of the Age. 

There are several zodiacal ways to think of ‘money.’ There is the money you have at hand or as a resource – that’s Taurus and the 2nd house. There’s money as income – a measure of reward for what you do. That’s Aquarius and the 11th house. 

Considering we’re moving into the Aquarian Age, that should tell us right away that with Aquarius on the 1st house, for the duration of the Age money will be a prime expression of Self. We will have it or we will not. We will work for it or we will not. We will focus on it or we will not.

Remember – Aquarius is all about individuality. And by definition, individuality is very individual.

(There’s a giant ‘DUH!’ if there ever was one!)

But looking at this strictly astrologically, there are two big groups when it comes to the Aquarius Self: those invest effort and those who don’t.

Those who invest may have to. Or like to. They may have an aptitude for it or they may simply be resigned to a regimen of need.

Those who don’t invest in effort may not like to. They may reject the idea that they should. They may do the least amount of anything possible. They may simply opt out.

Where Aquarius falls in your personal natal chart gives us a clue as to where in your personality life these attributes fall. The Saturn and Uranus in your natal chart (and how they’re placed, in what sign – all that stuff) tell us how how you tend to react on the individual level.

But on the level of the Age – you may be someone who hates the whole ‘rat race’ and yet may have to deal with it, day in and day out. You may be someone who would give their right toenail for a chance to have a decent job.

Yet that’s not money as power. Money as power is Scorpio, ruler of credit and debt, ruler of financing and loans, ruler of interest rates and inheritances and the power which comes from simply having a whole bunch of money. 

 

In the Aquarian Age, Scorpio sits at the top of the wheel of the

Age - the 10th house of career, government, achievement,

social status, feeling we have a place in this world, commerce and

the greater world we live in...or the greater world we live in. 

,,,

  

That we regard people who have lots of money as able to have anything they want – that’s our own investment in money as power. That’s our relationship to the power money holds over us. 

Our tendency to conceptualize the idea of money as something which makes us free - that’s a combination of Scorpio and Aquarius, and not always true. Some people have their money working for them in such a way which will keep the monetary pumps primed. Some have good people working to take care of their money. But ask any first generation mogul and they’ll tell you that there’s a whole lot of ‘doing’ which goes into earning (Aquarius) all that money and that once you have it, you have to take care of it. 

That ‘taking care of it’ – whether you do it yourself or you have to have people who do that for you – that’s the Scorpio part.

There are many hubs of monetary power in this world. There are nebulous entities like ‘Wall Street.’ Or a more defined entity like the Federal Board of Reserve. There’s OPEC. There are the international currency markets and all those mysterious/not-so-mysterious means and methods of valuing currency.

The whole concept of assigning a value to anything – be it a commodity like oil or a currency, or moving prime interest rates up or down, that’s another relationship between Scorpio, the price we have to pay and Aquarius, what the market will bear. 

These signs are in square. Managing both ends of any one of these puzzles is therefore defined as challenging. And yet, for the next 2,000 (plus) years, when people get it right Scorpio power will become potential unleashed – and everyone will benefit.

That we know…how? We know it because in the Aquarian Age, Scorpio sits at the top of the wheel of the Age.

The Midheaven of any chart describes what we aim for. Being a worldly position (the most worldly position in the chart) this can be what we aim to do in the world or provide to the world or what we simply aim to be. Or both!

With Scorpio on the Midheaven, the pursuit of personal power becomes an aim of the age. Since the 10th house is the house of corporate management and government, we will see governments struggle with the craving for and us of power throughout the whole of the age.

Scorpio is the sign of joint money….invested money. Governments obviously have the ability to amass huge amounts of money. Will they try to control it, or utilize it for the benefits of their people…and how does astrology define this idea.

Scorpio is a water sign. Everything about everything Scorpio – from interest rates to loans to war to control to sex to power to surrender is emotional. And that’s rather the point of the sign. Scorpio has two rules – Mars and Pluto. Mars symbolizes the choice of what we get involved in/with and the ability or willingness to risk all which goes with that involvement. Pluto represents the highly emotional ‘transformational’ moments which result from having made, or taken some risk.

And yes, Scorpio is a fixed sign. Fixed water being ‘ice,’ that those in power can ‘freeze assets’ or ‘freeze’ an interest rate…that we talk about liquidity when it comes to a flow of money…those do tell us a lot about our unconscious (perhaps) acknowledgement of Scorpio.

In the 'natural' zodiac wheel, Aries appears on the Ascendant - here

in orange at the left. The nature of the signs as they appear in a 'natural'

horoscope wheel is important, as the houses of the horoscope (that is to

say, any horoscope) are 'thematically' colored by the nature of the natural

zodiac wheel. This means that whether we're talking about your individual

chart, the chart of the Age or a chart of a company or a relationship, the

fixed sign houses 'act' in a somewhat 'fixed' (cautious, goal-oriented)

manner no matter what sign is on their cusp.

And yes, the converse of this is true too - wherever fixed signs fall in a

chart, whether that's your chart or that of an Age, a nation or a company,

those could be "naturally" very devil-may-care houses...but with a fixed

sign on the cusp, they are going to be far more convinced that yes, that

'devil' really does care about the details!  

Fixed signs tend to want to ‘hold on’ or ‘hold off’ until they’re sure something will work. But considering that the problem presented to/through all four fixed signs is that exactly what they care so much about cannot be proved out except through ‘doing’…that tends to bottle things up.

What this points out is that there’s a difference between being reasonably informed (and taking the time to get reasonably informed) and simply holding out, hesitating, balking or digging in your heels and refusing to budge.

But maybe the most useful image for Scorpio is the idea that (of all things!) there is a long-standing story image all about Scorpio as a swamp.

A swamp?

Yes! And a fine swamp too…which comes down to the fact that most of us don’t really know much about swamps. They’re actually incredibly rich natural environments. The Atchafalaya and the Everglades of the southern United States – just to name two handy swamps I have personal experience of - are some of the richest and most fertile environments on earth…EXCEPT WHEN THE WATER GETS TURNED OFF.

That’s the big astrological clue. Swamps remain healthy so long as the water flow which circulates through them bringing in new nutrients and flushing the system of its toxins isn’t stemmed. When that water is shut down to where not enough new comes in and not enough ‘used up’ is carried out, the swamp begins to get toxic and die.

This is the key to power, and if you think about it, there’s a direct ‘dotted line’ between this idea of the swamp and that old saying ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ After all, what does absolutely corrupted power do? It holds everything for itself. 

And whether that’s us or our governments or our monetary systems or our availability-willingness to give-and-take emotionally or in emotional relationships, that’s the challenge of the Age.

Maybe the biggest challenge of our Age. Our use of money (and debt and credit and war and sex and manipulation, coercion, surrender, denial and everything else Scorpio)…and our acceptance that it’s our responsibility to deal with these dynamics – that is what is going to shape our (10th house) world.

Of course there is one more part of this, namely: what sign is on Scorpio’s native 8th house during the Aquarian Age? 

Ah! Good question, grasshopper!

The answer to which is (drum roll, please…) VIRGO.

Virgo on the 8th house of the Aquarian Age says we want functionality.

But are we willing to work out a way that things can work for everyone?

Or are we so bent on what WE want that we are willing to sacrifice everyone

else for our personal concepts, demands, judgments and aims?

Because Virgo's 'moral requirement' goes wherever the sign goes, this

brings morality into matters financial, sexual and wherever force or efforts

to control (anything, for any reason) not only are we being told that the 'human

stakes' are being raised but that questions of responsibility and morality are

likely to be more necessary and be more of a 'bargaining chip,' which

considering this is the 8th house we are talking about, may or may not be a

total effort at coercion and/or manipulation.

  

And what are the key words to Virgo? Health, work, service. 

Right off the bat, are we surprised that as the Age comes in we’re having a health care financing crisis, a job crisis and a huge upsurge in various forms of problems where ‘one side’ seems to think it’s all about servicing their needs while the other is saying ‘hey, what about me?’ with the goal or (Virgo) effort falls through the cracks, all but forgotten for the highly visible (10th house) emotional (Scorpio) struggle (8th house)?

Virgo being (in essence), all about how we make life more functional, this one quality stands to be the ‘battle ground’ for the age and yet one of its greatest objects as well. Remember: the 8th house is Scorpio’s native house – this is the native land of that ‘nursery’ which nurtures the small and the as-yet-not-fully-formed. 

Remember Barbara Streisand in Hello Dolly? One of the great lines from that movie is where she’s giving her penny-pinching intended beau (Walter Matthau) her philosophy about money: money is like manure…it doesn’t mean anything without spreading it around, encouraging young things to grow. 

I always thought that was one of the most hilarious...and true things ever said.

Hoarding money doesn’t help. Philanthropists have known this for (literally!) ages. Governments know it too – though in this incoming Age the diversion into power-as-power (aka “power politics”) is on the increase and definitely not helpful to the people of any country!

And let’s not forget…this 8th house/Scorpio vibe thing…that can be manipulating or feeling manipulated. This can be the effort to control the situation or feeling controlled by the situations. 

Thus we also have feeling swamped and getting drawn in to a sticky situation being often associated with interactive emotional (Scorpio) situations! 

Let’s also be real here - governments are scarcely the only source one could point to saying they’re “guilty” of power manipulation.

The 10th house being natively the sign of ‘commerce,’ anyone in charge of a company will do this. But ‘commerce’ is not just money – this whole discussion of Scorpio should convey to us that ‘commerce’ is about a system of ‘give and take’ which really amounts to ‘I have something you want and I can either set a price for it – and make you pay that price…or we can negotiate a price which is fair to both of us.'

This is the classic management/worker debate. This is also very much part of the union debates so much part of the news in today’s world. And protests about economic opportunity.

At the heart of Scorpio lies the question of control versus submission – the dominance and the dominated. That’s not the best way for Scorpio to work unless the power given to the dominant party is voluntarily given and able to be taken back in any given moment. 

Obviously that’s the rub.

But let us be honest here: this Dominance-submission (sometimes called ‘survival of the fittest,’ sometimes referred to as ‘the law of the jungle’) it’s a situational dynamic which is part of all of life. The ruler and their people – that’s the same setup. Police have this kind of power over citizens, doctors have this power over patients (why do you think they call them ‘doctor’s orders?) and parents have this kind of power over children.

These last couple of examples should give us the plainest message that with power comes responsibility for the other…and that the more helpless the ‘other’ (a patient or a child) the more reprehensible it is for the ‘in charge’ person to use their power selfishly.

And this is the ‘rule’ which all of Scorpio embodies.

It even holds when we make a decision for ourselves which takes us into a Scorpio arena. The essence of Scorpio is all about a taking of a risk where the ‘experience’ comes through something external (Scorpio being an interactive sign) but the emotional result…? That’s about as personal as it gets.

Wherever Scorpio is in your chart, that’s where you risk and learn how well (or not well) you have designed your choices and risks in terms of a choice which will fit everybody’s parameters and tolerance.

In terms of the Aquarian Age, Scorpio covers career. It covers governments. It covers the concept of achievements – obviously those which provide something to/for others will reflect/function better for us…and we are more likely to get there by understanding who we are dealing with and how to appeal to or negotiate a path forward with them where ‘everybody wins’ in terms they define as willing.

(Very important in Scorpio matters…never assume you know what someone else values! When in doubt, ask!)

This being modified by Virgo being on the 8th house of the Age tells us what one key component we need to think about (and aim at) is functionality – and/or, seeing that Virgo is specifically on the 8th, functional gain(s). 

The avenue forward may well be represented pretty niftily by the complete polarity being Virgo on 8 against Pisces on the 2nd of the Age as well. That poses a question: can we find the commonalties between us? Virgo’s challenge is always to find the emotional commonalty where in practice it may tend to over-focus on its own standards of ‘right’ or ‘perfection.’

And in being positioned on the 8th house of the incoming Age, Virgo tempts us to focus on what we think is the ‘right’ way to do things and refuse to budge, struggling for power and control instead of working to find a solution which works all the way around. And the fact that Virgo’s innate emphasis on morality requires us to do the ‘best thing’ – not just for us, but for the communal, collective Piscean emotional good of all.

The extremes of 8th house ‘solutions’  are generally measured in money, sex, death or control, any of which can be expressed literally, or which can be figurative. Control may not be literal (hand on the tiller) but figurative (making the decision). Sex may be literal, but may be colloquial – the “shafting” of someone, some idea, some project. In the same sense, death can be a literal killing, or it can be ‘eliminating’ someone else as a competitor. Or wiping out someone else’s point of view.

By zodiacal/astrological definition, unless something is a threat to all, it is not a threat to the system. This goes with the Aquarian Age mantra of acceptance and allowance for differences. It not only shouldn’t matter that we’re different, or that we have different ideas of what “good” (or even – to take one “o” out, God) is…in the Aquarian Age the optimal is not to be all one thing but to all be granted universal acceptance as from differences, inclusive of the friction that creates, come our greatest discoveries. Some about our world and some about ourselves.

One of the things about Scorpio goes back to that image of ‘ice.’ Emotionally, the ‘coldest’ of emotions is fear, indifference is the total absence of emotions and denial is refusing to acknowledge anyone’s feelings. With emotionally interactive Scorpio at the top of the wheel of the Age, systemic Aquarius at the “I Am/I Do” Ascendant and functional Virgo on Scorpio’s native 8th house, plainly rejection of emotions or emotional rejection or rejections based on ‘emotionally (Scorpio) based (Virgo) rationales (Aquarius)’ are likely to be seen a-plenty, but are simply Aquarian Age negatives.

The right and necessity to be ourselves – who we are – is essential. More essential now, apparently, than ever. Knowing where ‘our’ right to dictate starts and ends is evidently part of the trick of this Age – as is allowing that others have other ways and other values and that may not be all that bad.

Money is a vehicle. A tool. Apart from the Barbara Streisand line about it, money is a means by which people interact, wall themselves off, judge, exclude, reward and punish others.

During the whole of the next 2,000 (plus) years, we are likely to encounter every variation on a theme when it comes to use use and abuse of money as power and power exercised through money. So when you see or hear about it, when you feel yourself being tempted by it, remember – the feeling is the key, and we’re all more powerful when functioning from a position of knowing there is no price to pay rather than one where we say we will simply have to pay the price.

The difference is getting beyond our preconceptions of values – and taking the risks which get us there are what Scorpio’s all about…and thus a mantra for ‘getting rich’ in the many years to come.