Alcyone: The Taurus Point

 The star group known as the Pleiades

(photo credit: NASA-ESA-AURA-Caltech-Palomar, June 2004)

Currently positioned at 0 Gemini, Alcyone is a star I haven't heard about much. Nevertheless, it's part of the constellation Taurus - which certainly gives it some importance.

And there is that little fact that the South Node, Sedna and Algol are doing a mish-mosh conjunction thing - which we should probably think of as either an exacerbating or strengthening of Taurean tendencies, issues and necessities, whatever that may be in your world.

We do talk a bit about Algol in astrology. Maybe it's because Algol has acquired such a bad reputation for stubbornly self-involved reactivity (read: pig-headedness). Astrologers - like everybody else - do seem to like celestial train wrecks. (Yes, we sky ogle.) But there is always that concept that there is a good side of every astrological placement if we can understand how to get there. With Algol, it's the end to which you use/aim your reactiveness and outrage. It's the why behind the pouncing on something which counts.

No, that doesn't defend going around shouting 'Off with their head!' like the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland.  Being self-centered is still a Taurus downfall - as is going after money and material things purely for their own sake.

But back to Alcyone. Alcyone is not just ‘part’ of Taurus, it’s the brightest star in Taurus. So why don't we hear more about Alcyone?

Well...this is just a guess, but people do think about  Taurus as the sign of security, satisfaction and self-worth. They just don't like the process of getting to that sense of inner security, satisfaction and self-worth.

So what do people do? They try to get things which will provide them with security, satisfaction and self-worth, which isn't the point of Taurus at all.

Taurus is about what you do and how that affects how you feel about yourself. All three of the zodiac's first trio of signs (Aries, Taurus, Gemini) are focused on 'Who am I? Who can I be or become?'...Aries is the physical part, Gemini is the mental part, and Taurus is that heart, soul and sense of personal sensitivity.

Hence why Taurean Sun sign people like things which feel good and luxe goods. But those things will never make a Taurus feel good. Or safe. Or secure. And part of the 'why?' of that may lie in Alcyone - the star which is the tip of a Taurus horn.

This gets back to that old Taurus/Scorpio polarity. Scorpio is the sign of war and in that light Alcyone is the ability to go to war if needs be...with the understanding that the optimal sort of life involves not going to war at all, but finding (Scorpio) ways to live with others and keep the peace (maybe even advance the cause) by enduring our sense of possible invalidations along the 'what, my way ISN'T the high way?' experiences in the (Scorpio) interactive arena.

Having our values is one thing. Testing them is quite another. And learning that other people may have different values which are quite different and equally as valid in their life? That's Taurean security.

If the old expression 'speak softly and carry a big stick' holds water (which it tends to) and the greatest use of power is not to ever have to use that power (ditto) then Alcyone is about capacity. It's about the readying and the readiness of the Self to take on and endure through whatever life brings on. It's the (inner) knowing that you are at least secured by....whatever....and if it came to it, you would be willing to stand up for your Self.

That's self-worth. When we could saber-rattle but don't have to saber-rattle, that's because we are satisfied enough with our Self to just go about our own business.

That's Taurus. And more to...uh...the point, that seems to be the 'bright point' about Taurus - which gets back to Taurus as a star all about self-development. It's the work we put into developing our Self which we then have confidence in. Which enables - and perhaps even motivates us - to go out there and take on the world and bring home that bacon.

Or maybe that fancy car, yes! 

Constellation Taurus as pictured in the 'Uranographia' of Johannes Hevelius back in 1690

As a star, Alcyone is no shrinking violet, either. Classed as a Blue Giant, Alcyone is in the same sort of category as Thuban, Arcturus and one of the most easily found stars in the sky, Alnitak – one of the trio which makes up Orion’s starry belt. So again, considering how ‘mainline’ Thuban and Arcturus are as astrological stars, it’s interesting that Alcyone doesn’t get more press.

That it deserves our attention would seem likely. After all, Alcyone changed signs in September of the year 2000. Any time a fixed star changes signs that’s a pretty good signal that the ‘base harmonics’ of life as we know it are going to change. Maybe that change will be pretty subtle…but over time, subtle accumulates and can become a big deal.

Now positioned at 0 Gemini, Alcyone evokes and ‘lights up’ a degree described in the Sabian Symbols as “A Glass-Bottomed Boat Reveals Undersea Wonders.” Astrologer Marc Edmund Jones (he who collected the Sabian symbols to begin with) referred to this degree as ‘the revelation of unconscious energies and submerged psychic structures’ which, considering this is Gemini we are talking about, seems apt. Thus Alcyone is bringing to light unconscious energies…which with water being referenced are either emotional, or emotionally driven. (Water is always, always, always about our emotions!)

Gemini itself is an air sign – so this ‘unconscious emotionalism’ comes from and comes to us (“to light”) via the realm of mentality, thought, verbalism and choice. It will also be filled with that Gemini tendency towards ‘much, more, many, varied and variable’ which as we’ve sorted through before (in talking about the Gemini stars Castor and Pollux) tends to go for the (Castor) ‘sheer strength of numbers’ where ultimately it’s the (Pollux) thoughtful choice – replete with sacrifice where necessary – which saves the day.

And lets remember also…the ‘lit lens’ (if you will) – the Alcyone ‘quality’ through which all this Gemini-ism is funneled (yes, I just made up that word!) is still Taurean. It still aims to fulfill our personal sense of security, importance, satisfaction with our place in the world – all that.

As I started thinking through all this it didn’t seem remarkable to me – considering these ideas – that it’s just since 2000 that we’ve had the invention and rise of things like Facebook and Twitter. Particularly since whenever we find references to ‘the unconscious’ that’s not just ours but the global unconscious…the whole, the mass, that which connects us all or which is common to us all…things like Facebook and Twitter would seem to apply.

But to really understand Alcyone, we need to add in her myth. For one, Alcyone is one of the Pleiades. Seven in number, the Pleiades were the daughters of a sea-nymph (more water equals more emotion) and Atlas – the one person saddled with the task of holding the entire world on his shoulders.

 A wonderful rendition of Atlas holding the weight of a world which here is beautifully fashioned from a Nautilus

(circa 1630, housed at the Walters Art Museum)

As a group, the Pleiades were in service to Artemis – sister of Apollo. Associated with everything ‘under the Moon’ and always referred to as chaste (besides which she was the goddess of hunting and the chase) Artemis symbolizes the need to reflect on what we do and why we do it…and the Pleiades serve this cause.

We can guess that papa Atlas was probably happy with his daughters’ choice of partner, too. Not that in those primal times there was all that much choice of course.

Three of the sisters (Maia, Electra and Taygete) were taken in by Zeus. One was claimed by Ares and another turned Orion the hunter down for (of all people!) Sisyphus.

Bad choice, that. Sisyphus ends up being one of the great sinners in all of Greek myth and in astrological form embodies that edgy testiness we feel when we know we can take advantage of a situation (or person) and know we shouldn’t. The fact that Sisyphus falls prey to his inner carnal weakness is a commentary on how easy it is to do just that.

Even if we always pay. Maybe the injured party doesn’t catch us. Maybe we get away with the nasty moment, the illicit act, the misuse of power.

The truth is, we only get away with it on the surface. We always know. We will always bear the scar of having known we did ill when we didn’t have to.

I’m really thinking this one sister would have done better to marry the hunter. At least Orion has a fabulous belt. As the story goes, he chased all the Pleiades – and caught not a one of them.

Maybe he wasn’t that good a hunter?

As for Alcyone, she and her sister Celaeno were claimed by Poseidon (aka Neptune) which in underscoring the idea of emotionalism tells us that Alcyone is part of the urge – even that which ‘goads’ us to become part of the ‘emotional mass consciousness’ of life which has come to be part of life really since the year 2000.

 The Pleiades by Elihu Vedder

(1885, oil on canvas, housed at Metropolitan Museum of Art NYC)

The ‘up’ side of 0 Gemini is that it implies a fresh mentality. For those of us born prior to the year 2000 we are challenged by the new and challenged to reformulate our perspective on life as a whole. For those born after September of 2000 (the month Alcyone moves into Gemini) the whole of life…and their life will be part of this new and different world of communication and perception.

Yes, it’s something to think about, parents. Your kids are made not of ‘different stuff’ than we are, but along a different line of perspective than we were born with. What we have had to learn will be native to our children, who will grow up in a world which indeed has the ability to see into the depths of our lives as through a glass-bottomed boat.

Of course there’s a down side to 0 Gemini too. That down side is the naiveté, the vulnerability which comes as the other side of a fresh, clean outlook. 0 Gemini is really Gemini at its least experienced…and thus probably at Gemini’s least reflective.

Maybe self-measured is a better way to put it.

And that may mean that Alcyone is asking us to ask ourselves 'what's the point?' before we take something on. Before we join that crowd. Before we sign onto that standard. Or even taken on that job.

Also to be considered here is how at 0 Gemini, the Alcyone ‘vibe’ is also colored by Algol - what with Algol being currently positioned at 26 Taurus. But then, after rolling through the star charts back to about 2,000 BCE and forward to 2,200 CE, it seems to have always been that way.

So Alcyone - which we're seeing here as a sign about our ability to do things - may 'suffer' some from the Algol 'because I can' sort of vibe. Hence malice. Hence materialism. Hence....

A star on the tip of Taurus horn…is that life goading us? Is that us human types attempting to ward off that which makes us uncomfortable? Is that 'I only want the cherry on top, never mind what it takes to milk the cows and make ice cream' marking us as self-indulgent and unrealistically so?

Maybe yes.

Yet at the same time, through the implied connection with Neptune and Artemis, Alcyone would also seem to represent a myriad of possibilities which we tap into through recognizing how we are connected to others. And how that connectivity and our ability to 'drive the point home' needs to be judiciously used if we hope to achieve our aims and not just get put out to pasture in the regards of other people.

Our new age is filled with new prospects which we can tap into, of course. But to make the most of that, maybe we need to look deep inside our Self. Maybe we need to be honest about how secure or insecure we really are and how that plays out in our lives...how it affects our relationships and our ability to relate to others and be related to in turn.

The bull is a noble beast. Yet plenty of bulls will shake their heads and threaten even when there's no evidence of danger.

What is our point? What do we lead with? Do we over-react? If so, why do we do that? What do we need to do to understanding our own feelings - and how that which stirs us doesn't just connect us to one another, but is probably the very thing which humans have most in common?
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Facebook: Going Public Under Venus Retrograde

 

When I first wrote about Facebook, the idea of the company going public was not yet a whisper in the wind.

Then I heard the news: Facebook was getting set up for an IPO (initial public offering) and joining the world of publicly held corporations.

I wondered how well Facebook would do with all that public regulation and scrutiny. So I did what astrologers do - I pulled the corporate chart out. And there indeed was a whole lotta commentary!

Facebook’s Saturn (the hallmark of any business being Saturn)...that’s way up high in the chart. And for a business, that's great. The business ‘holds’ the concept of being a business very high, and with this Saturn being in the 9th, there 'mission' of the company is likely to be held equally high.

Mind you, that doesn't always happen. But with this Saturn? Uh...yeah. With this Saturn, Facebook started out understanding that it's business was the functionality of its users. Facebook’s Saturn is in Cancer. Cancer is the sign of people or 'populations.' Saturn in Cancer is thus Facebook as a company about people, and Facebook is a company whose business is people.

Still, it's not all service and roses. Saturn in Cancer is Saturn in its sign of fall. As a business, that means the prospect of the company as a company can be a little too limited...or a company which tends to be a little prickly (even snarky) with users or (seeing as this is a 9th house Saturn) entitles which embody 9th house 'rules and regulations.'

Going back to Cancer as the sign of ‘the people,’ native populations and corporate 'customers,' it's a great emblem of the zillions of people who have joined Facebook - and a sign that zillions of people would be inclined to join Facebook.

By itself, that's mucho fabuloso. But since Saturn in Cancer would be ruled by the Moon (the Moon rules Cancer) it's really the Facebook corporate chart Moon which affirms this 'popularity' thing. The Facebook Moon is in Capricorn, and Capricorn is ruled by Saturn. 

This creates a nice little closed-circuit system where Saturn (Facebook the company) supports the people (Moon = people) who thus support the (Saturn) success of Facebook. Nice! Facebook is indeed a business about people (Saturn in Cancer). Moreover, Facebook's Saturn business success has been fed by tons of real time and digital word-of-mouth fashion - and that's very Capricorn Moon in the 3rd house.

(FYI, these kinds of astrological ‘closed circuits’ are known as ‘mutual receptions.’)

Facebook’s “meteoric” rise is written in the chart as Moon conjunct Icarus (Icarus being a symbol of being ‘quick to take flight’). And there is Pluto in the 3rd house too. That lends (and describes) the whole obsessive, ‘life on Facebook’ sort of aura.

Oh, it's all so very nice, eh?

Eris on the Descendant of the corporate chart is a huge and positive mark towards changing societal organization. I can change the world is one yell yelled by this chart very loudly.

Though it is – let’s face it – also something of a ‘buyer beware’…first in the exultant treasure trove of data Facebook members have ended up providing for their host, then just as obviously with regards to the IPO.

One note about that ‘invasion of privacy’ and data mining thing so many grumble about with regards to Facebook. Eris and the Descendant are in Aries, which points to Mars, ruler of Aries.

That Mars is in the 10th house of commerce at 22 Leo conjunct the 23 Leo 11th house cusp of corporate income. One conjugation for Leo on the 11th would surely be entertainment income. Another would be enthusiastic fans – which Facebook obviously has by the bucketful.

A screen clip of Facebook's 11th house cusp

With Orcus (consequences of actions which cannot be undone) at 24 Leo and thus just inside the 11th (coloring 11th house operations by being so close to the cusp) - that's the sign to anyone dealing with Facebook-the-corporation-and-social-network that Facebook can rightly claim that before you join, you should read the fine print (and that) there are costs to being part of any group or society…

Namely, you're not just in public (watch what you post and don't blame us, says Facebook!) but that Facebook has the right to treat your data as it's "product."

Lo and behold: data mining in horoscope terms!

However! This Mars/11th house/Leo/Orcus thing is not just a statement to users. It's also a warning to Facebook, by which I mean to the likes of say, Mark Zuckerberg. After all, the sound of going public is probably enchanting. It’s probably exciting as all get-out to go through all the steps and realize your once tiny company is going to be listed on the big board at the stock exchange.

This happens to be the Phillippine Stock Market Board and

Facebook isn't on it (the photo was taken in July of 2008)

but can you just imagine how exciting it would be to know

that YOUR company is going to be one of those listed on

a worldwide exchange?

 (photo credit Katrina Tuliao, July 2008)

But there is a 'down' side there. Once you go public, it’s a whole new ball game – in this case the Orcus ball game. Remember - the 11th house of any horoscope is the "public marketplace." And where in your chart or that of a privately held corporation it would be your product and fitting in at a company and anything-plus-everything which would create income, that changes when a company goes public.

There's a couple of parts of this. One is that when a company becomes a "public entity" then the society (represented by the 11th house) gets a bigger vote not just in how it values your company stock, but in what it thinks of your attitudes towards the public - you know, the how you treat people part.

Astrologically, we would also see this as taking the lid off the Leo (Sun-ruled) qualities in this chart. All corporate charts are Sun-ruled (they're all timed for noon) but with Facebook, there is that important Saturn-Moon mutual reception which has up until the 'going public' moment certainly represented the incredible organic drive which has grown Facebook as a company.

Will going public take some of that ‘drive’ out of the Saturn-Moon connection, in essence diverting that energy into Facebook’s 10th house Leo Sun (which is inconjunct that native Moon-power thing)? One would think it would. Facebook has always been a company. It's always needed to earn it's way in the world. But this going public thing may well turn the business of Facebook into Facebook the business in a whole new way and at a whole new level.

Is this bad? Well, just on the face of the domestic chart (no pun really intended there…) this is isolating. Once Facebook becomes a ‘true corporate entity’ it’s going to be less a thing of the people.

Ever hear of that expression “jumping the shark” ? This is not to say that Facebook is going to go away or anything, but the internal ‘us the people’ Cancer thing is now officially a whole different thing than the company’s interests. It is – to use the plain spoken vernacular – now truly out to make money. Before the IPO there was an organic quality to Facebook which now has in part, even greatly, been shifted out of the hands of the ‘regular folks’ (the users) and into the hands of not just those running Facebook, but all those who will seek to regulate Facebook.

And the metaphysics there are a bit grizzly. After all, on the metaphysical level…with regulation comes the need to regulate. And with Facebook, this is a whole scattering slew of fractious forms of bad behavior. Not on Facebook’s part necessarily – but on its users.

This sounds odd, I know. But this is at the heart of metaphysical concept: once you impose the structure, then there is a need for structure. Before structure was there, everything may have been ducky. But once you put that structure in place, the need for it arises.

If this was a cast on someone’s leg, we’d be speaking of atrophy of the muscles. In the case of a company like Facebook going public, it would be more like ‘public atrophy’ or a ‘laxness of user interest.’

We’ll have to see, obviously.

But then we get to the actual IPO...and why, when I heard when Facebook was going to go public that I gasped in futile alarm. Who told Mark Zuckerberg it would be a good idea to go public under Venus retrograde? (…bangs head on desk…) That’s about the biggest no-no I know of!

Oh, wait…he also got married, right?

(heavy sigh...)

Yes, well…I wish him and the wife all the love and luck in the world, though as an astrologer I know there are painfully few personal and joint (Davison relationship) charts with internal indicators which say they’ll thrive under a marriage committed to under Venus retrograde.

As for Facebook, there’s also the specifics of this Venus retrograde to contend with. Venus went retrograde at 23 Gemini. And guess where Facebook’s corporate Venus is?

22 Gemini.

To stage an important ‘moment’ at any planetary station suggests it’s an important ‘turn of events.’ And there is some symbolism about Venus’ turn to retrograde which fits here. Retrogrades are a ‘turning inward’ and Facebook certainly did ‘take in’ a whole lot of money by going public.

But if you’ve been listening to the news, the stock didn’t just take off and fly. And that is the sign of the Venus station chosen being that which is going INTO retrograde as opposed to that coming OUT of retrograde.

Of course to make this all more exotic, this means that the 2012 Facebook ‘Venus Return’ would, on first processing through the brain, seem to have happened just prior to Venus going retrograde. Maybe Venus was in it’s ‘on station’ period – and wouldn’t that be good?

Well, not exactly. Let’s remember that retrograde is a function of planetary orbits and relative planetary speed. Venus isn’t actually going backwards…it’s just that because of Venus’ orbit and Earth’s orbit, from our perspective it would seem to look that way.

Or it would if we could see Venus. While planets are retrograde, they are on the other side of the Sun – from Earth, I mean. So Venus in retrograde is Venus ‘out of sight.’ And since this relative planetary motion thing doesn’t happen all at once, that means…

Bottom line: the Facebook Venus return happened on May 7th.

Actually, make that the initial Venus return. With retrogrades, the planet comes up, does a station-to-retrograde, moves back down zodiacal degrees, does another station (this time station-direct) and then comes back to conjunct the point again.

Got that? That means there’s one initial (direct) Venus Return, a Venus-in-retrograde Venus Return, then after Venus goes direct, a final Venus direct Venus Return.

The initial Venus return for Facebook was May 7th.

 Facebook, Inc - the initial (May 7, 2012) Venus Return chart

The retrograde return would be May 22nd (the date of my writing this post, as it happens…).

 Facebook Inc - 2012 Venus Return (retrograde pass at May 22nd)

This is a picture of much verbal speculation...without much in the way of answers. Legalities (Saturn in 9) are still very much in the (9th house) news and a grand trine between Mars in 8 - Vesta (in a sensitive position just shy of the 4th house cusp) - and Pluto in the Sagittarian 12th (which has 'inherited' all the energy of the Sagittarian 11th) suggests several things, all of which are probably valid on some level.

1. A lot of pension funds and major corporate entities are interested in Facebook.

2. The general economy and greater international (Sagittarius = foreign) concerns is having something of an effect on this initial offering.

3. There is something 'internal' which pertains to money and the control of money, parceling out, transacting in, retention of (etc.) which involves promises (Vesta) which need sorting through. Considering this is in the aftermath of an initial public offering, that doesn't seem unusual. Is it something more?

With Vesta so close to the IC (Nadir) we'll have to see. That Taurus Vesta is ruled by the Venus-trine-Saturn in 9 however...? One would expect some cursory questions at least...especially (speaking here metaphysically) because the 'importance' of Vesta has just been moved up a notch (see previous post).

The point is that Vesta is about our promises. But what those promises are on the inside...which here is very clearly pictured as Vesta/IC (the IC-Nadir being the 'innermost' point in any chart). Motivations noble and craven are Taurus...which in real terms here, considering Taurus only at the very most basic level would be money or 'worth' - the value of the company.

In IPO terms that would be the valuation of the company. And that Vesta is at the Nadir in this Venus Return (retrograde) chart refers us to what the company is being on.

I'm thinking you get my drift. And whether voiced through corporate earnings, price stock, outside influences on the company, actions of corporate officers (the ultimate 'insiders,' one would assume) or the zillions of people on Facebook, a retrograde Taurus Vesta at the IC asks who has promised what and what the future promises.

We live in contentious times. This offering was made under Saturn-opposition-Eris which is as much as anything else about exposing problems in the system. So if Facebook has stepped in a gopher hole there, that's just part of what came with the choice of date for the IPO.

(And yes, I'd love to know how that date was chosen! Next time, get an astrologer, guys!)

The third Venus return, the direct return which will be the Venusian signature Facebook will ‘live out’ until May 2013 when it gets its next Venus return – that happens on July 29th.

Facebook, Inc - the July 29 (2012) final Venus Return pass

Would this be a good time to buy stock? Better than the initial day, one would suppose – though there is a theory in stock speculation (which is all a form of Leo-5th house ‘gambling’) which says buy low and wait it out.

As an astrologer, the best I can suggest on this score is that you go by your own chart, how that works with Facebook’s corporate and IPO chart with a fair perspective on your resources and tolerance of risk.

While it would be fascinating to do a ‘group analysis’ of everyone and every entity which bought into Facebook’s IPO, that’s simply not possible. (Alas!)

In that final chart, Venus is at the IC and conjunct Charybdis (continuing to try), Bellatrix (difficulty in getting the point across) and fixed star Phact, a signature of a ‘difficult struggle with one’s mentality’ which goes right along with Bellatrix.

Venus also rules an intercepted Libra Saturn/Mars in the 7th which is in opposition to an Aries Pallas an Eris in the 1st house. On one level, this is the recognition of how sometimes expectations outstrip results which may be perfectly okay, just not spectacular. On another, this would seem to be greatly about Facebook reasserting its value to users (it's 'product' base) as the corporation knows people need to continue feeling friendly about friending if the Facebook Phenomenon (as it's called) is to continue. 

As for the IPO chart itself. it has a highly placed Moon in Taurus (at 2 Taurus) which is followed by a cavalcade of points (Vesta, Ceres, Black Moon Lilith, Mercury, Sedna, Jupiter) …ending in the Sun at 28 Taurus.

This is all in the IPO’s 10th house, meaning the company is seen as valuable. But there’s also a Grand Square in this chart composed of Mars/Medea in Virgo in the 2nd house, North Node in Sagittarius in the 4th house, Chiron/Niobe in Pisces in the 8th house and South Node/Circe in the 10th house. 

To put this concisely, this gives the IPO a ‘dazzling’ quality. And yet…there’s something about it. It’s that Chiron/Niobe thing in the Piscean 8th. Is this company really capable of delivering on its value? That would be something of the question posed, and with Neptune having moved into Pisces last year, chances are we aren’t going to know for a while. Undoubtedly Neptune’s conjunction of Chiron (at 9 Pisces) is going to change the internal dynamics of the company and its operative priorities. We just don’t know what that means yet.

…Oh yes! One other thing about this IPO before I forget. It has Vesta/Phaethon at 7 Taurus, too, right at the top of this chart. Put simply, this is a headstrong and quite possibly self serving drive which is all about money and it’s to be expected that this filing will produce every variation on ‘stock greed’ and ‘stock hoarding’ and stock-as-security net imaginable.

So let’s think…Jupiter is about to enter Gemini. So from 2012 to 2013, Jupiter is going to be transiting Gemini and getting into/retrograding in/teaching us what Facebook’s 11th house ‘public corporate persona’ is going to be about. Jupiter not being known for excessive good behavior in Gemini, one would expect Facebook stock to be all over the place for a while.

Once Jupiter reaches Cancer (on June 26, 2013), things should settle down. What will make them settle down? Well, with Neptune taking its 2013 station/retrograde at 5 Pisces (which is just at the point where Neptune would be thought to be affecting the IPO’s natal Chiron), this is some sort of ‘handwriting on the wall’ moment.

Oh yes…that 5 Pisces position? That’s the position of Facebook’s natal (corporate) Uranus in the 5th house. 

This is something willful, something creative, or something having to do with children. There is a native vulnerability inherent with Pisces that even big corporations have to deal with. They all have vulnerabilities. With Uranus being the signature of all things digital and positioned in this chart conjunct Fomalhaut (success achieved only when there is a lack of corruption) and Byblis (defense of the indefensible) there are all sorts of uglies which may yet surface.

In fact, which will yet surface.

Does Jupiter’s continuing on into the IPO’s 12th house indicate stock stability? Some domestic-versus-international issue? Something to do with families? Some sort of ‘cultural’ divide?

Maybe. With the 12th house cusp colored by Athena (intellectual wisdom) and Sabine (held captive) it’s likely that come the latter part of 2013 it will be a wiser and somewhat more conservative or conservationist Facebook which faces this public world it has now – in essence – married.

Weddings under Venus retrograde can succeed. You just have to be aware of the emotional dynamics. 

So…Mister Zuckerberg? With all the respect in the world for what you’ve created, next time you decide to go public with some sort of company, consult all the bankers and lawyers - absolutely. But then maybe you also want to check with an astrologer.

In the meantime, good luck to you and the new wife.

Most of the world is going to look at the newly wedded Zuckerbergs and say they have everything. Yet while in the monetary sense that may be true (they absolutely have money)…will they have love?

That is, without qualm or question, a whole different thing.

Musing on News: Facebook Feedback Not So 'Friend'ly?

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 A newsstand in Rome...some today don't even remember

when all there were was newspapers!

photo credit: Ed Yourdon

These are just thoughts of an astrologer sitting listening to the news...

Did you hear about Facebook? It got some ‘gotten useful feedback’ over this past (long) weekend.

(That would be ‘long’ in the United States were Martin Luther King Day was this past Monday)

Facebook had been moving into the idea of ‘list selling’ (aka ‘list rental’) – which is a common practice in many arenas. If you use a service, if you sign onto a roster, often enough that company/organization ‘rents’ or ‘sells’ lists of information - including yours - to other companies. Those companies (or individuals) use that information to do anything - from generating statistical data...to bombarding you with advertising...to combining that list with other lists in order to learn more and more (and more) about you.

So...remember that January 4th Solar Eclipse? It hit the 3rd house Capricorn Moon/Juno of Facebook’s natal chart. Apart from the whole and greater sense of what Solar Eclipses do when they hit your chart with any exactitude (namely, describe a change of life)...this is a company we're talking about, not a person.

Even so, the effects are not so amazing. Eclipses tend to exacerbate the difficult or reveal the flaws with something, all of which may make this whole list selling thing equally distasteful, sure. But amazing? Uh...no. Not at least astrologically.

In a person, the 3rd house is thinking, organization, communication and mentality. In a nation or corporate chart, the 3rd is corporate planning and the company's 'outlook' and its operational intake/outflow of information.

In Facebook's chart, we have three figures of absolute note in this corporate 3rd house: the Moon, Pluto and Juno. The eclipse hit Facebook's Juno and Moon - Pluto was just a lucky bystander.

Or...okay...maybe not lucky. That remains to be seen!

But as noted to reader Annette who just yesterday  morning commented on the Full Moon post – the Moon is always a symbol of values and money. In Capricorn, sign of structure and business, we would immediately go to 'business money' and with all this being in the 3rd house evolve the concept to business money planning...or use of information to create (earn) more money for the business.

As for Juno, Juno is an interesting symbol…the basic image of the mythic Juno is of the protective mama bear who defends home, hearth and family.

And yet...and yet....all is not always so nifty in Greek myth. Those Greek gods are so totally full of human foibles! In the case of Juno (which is actually the Roman name for Hera)...here we refer not merely to mama bear defender of home and kiddies, we add in a liberal bucketful of shrewish if betrayed wife.

Yes - that Hera (Juno) Wife of chief Olympian Jupiter (Zeus), Juno is not just the consort wife-in-chief, she is by any measure, the classic matriarch of household. So whether we're talking about a man, woman, nation or company, wherever we see Juno, we tend to find a fine-point balance between 'entitled' and 'entitlement.'

So in this Facebook chart, whether Juno is (in the long run) entitled or entitlement is up for grabs - we'll probably learn a lot more at the end of the 3-year solar eclipse cycle. But that as the eclipse manifested Facebook stubbed its toe against something which may have made people feel it was swaying a little towards the entitlement side?

Tres interesting. That this happened as the Sun kept on rolling along and hit first the 'right or wrong' IC point (we all wobble a bit in life!) and then Chiron, a point known to point up our 'oops!' moments?

So of course the news is all abuzz with how people should check privacy policies on websites and how hardly anybody does...and all that.

And yes, we should. And no, we all don't. But when it comes to Facebook....well, should we?

That's where the little Pluto thing comes in. With Pluto lurking just inside Facebook's 3rd house cusp, if Facebook wants to keep user information private, it can. If it decides not to, this is a company likely to do whatever it can to get around the rules.

(LINK to article on Facebook.)

Do we know which company Facebook really is? Well...maybe. If you Google around looking for comments (Google is another data collector, by the by) you'll find comments on Facebook's departure policy.There are even a couple of posts detailing how users need to go through both steps in leaving Facebook since the first only pulls your page down and it's the second which evidently deletes your data from the Facebook computers - the whole process taking a couple of weeks to complete.

That sounds a wee bit Plutonic to me - by which I mean Pluto in the 'controlling' sense. But it all does make sense. After all, users pay no user fee - Facebook has to make is money somehow, right? Without income, how does Facebook buy all those computers (or computer time) and hold the network together?

It just ain't free!

And certainly Facebook isn't the only company which stores, rents or sells data. Not by a long shot.

But astrologically, the interesting thing here is the timing. As the weekend of January 15/16 was coming into being, Pluto ended a sextile to Facebook’s Uranus. Then there was this ‘we’re going to think about all this feedback we’ve just gotten’ announcement which went out at the first of the week - just as Jupiter squared Facebook's Black Moon Lilith as Mercury conjuncted the corporate Moon.

What does that mean? Hold your horses...we're getting there! That means that Facebook’s enormous and seemingly inexorable (Pluto in 3) 'information growth' as having 'connected to an opportunity' (the sextile) with  Uranus as the internet, Uranus as the society and Uranus as networking had done it's job.

Not to mention Pluto sextile Uranus as a rather perfect picture of the seemingly unstoppable word-of-Plutonic-mouth about  Facebook which then broke  through (Uranus) the social consciousness (Uranus yet again!).

And yet, all that ended. And as fast as it ended on the 14th, that particular sort of 'magic' was over. And as soon as it was done, Facebook got a Jupiter/Lilith square: knowledge or knowing (Jupiter) that there is a problem/challenge (square) coming from a Society or Societal Force (Lilith).

And where is Lilith in this chart? In the 9th house - a house of information dissemination....in Gemini, the sign of information.

Oh - and did I mention Lilith is at a "critical" degree? On one hand, this 'critical' degree thing is always intensity. But in the 9th, as concerns Lilith? That's also 'criticism' pretty plain and clear.

Which is rather worth noting, if only because unless Facebook dissolves as a corporation and reincorporates...if it doesn't do that, it's always going to have this 9th house critical degree Gemini Black Moon Lilith.

On the other hand, it also has a Gemini Venus in 9. So in the end, Facebook is either going to be selling lists or doing a lot of retail (becoming a new Amazon for users, perhaps?) or taking on advertisers.

Like we said, it has to be paid for.

 Facebook, Inc - a Delaware Corporation

Interesting also is how part of this Black Moon thing was the 'society' as voiced by the government. Lo, for the many companies which have been selling lists and information, this comes up with Facebook and suddenly political voices in Washington DC are realizing that internet privacy is a problem.

Or at least an impending problem.

Could it be because there are a couple of Presidents and other heads of state on Facebook? Hmmm...

But never mind that. How this all came to ‘light’ as the Moon was moving towards a Full phase in the Moon’s own sign (Cancer) which happens to be the sign of the people? That seems interesting - and apt.

Unfortunately, for those who like short movies, quick resolutions and video clips, you're out of luck. This story isn't going to get resolved this week, this month - probably not even this year. It's going to take Facebook - and others in this 'free to users' position time to defuse (or explode) this explosive informational issue labeled ‘privacy versus corporate profits.’

Three years...we'll have to set our calendars.

During this time, more new realities will surely surface. Already users are beginning to be confronted with the idea that companies just can’t do everything for free. After all - their employees have families which need to eat too!

And Facebook is facing that question too. Evidently a poll has already been taken asking if people would pay a dollar a month to have Facebook and not have Facebook sell their data. Result? So far, much grumbling.

Oh, what’s a company to do?

The 13 Capricorn Solar Eclipse of January 4th (LINK to article) is going to keep raising these issues - in one form after another. And speaking of corporate money, did you hear the chatter on Wikileaks and Swiss bank accounts belonging to well-heeled bankers?

Facebook, Wikileaks, bankers, the internet – this is all about the structure of business and the rights of the individual versus the right to know – the right to own information because its proprietary against the need to make a living. Which is not just this Capricorn Solar Eclipse, but this Capricorn Solar Eclipse at the onset of the Aquarian Age.

Aquarius: 

Society, income, networking, systems, 

the internet (all technology, actually)...

mass marketing, elitism, information,

freedom, anarchy, universalism,

corporations, rights,

individuality and the group.

In the end, people are going to have to come to some agreements about all this. Money is life's barter and both sides are going to have to re-balance the scales. People have to respect the efforts of those who invest their time, creativity and money. On the other hand, we're entitled to know what gets done with our information. It’s one thing for a company to deliver statistics on 500,000 people, half of whom visit CNN and the other half which doesn’t. It’s a whole other thing to deliver a list of 500,000 names complete with address, phone number and the names of your kids, dog and goldfish.

What this may come down to – in the end – is that we either pay the company for a service and in return get privacy, or we don’t pay and they sell our information.

We may not be able to have it both ways. But if we can’t, should companies be able to?

One thinks not.

In the end, on our side or theirs, the enemy would seem to be greed and entitlement.

But whatever that may be, isn't it interesting that this whole problem is finally reaching public and lawmaker attention via a company called Facebook?

Plus - as a US citizen, it also seems a nice touch that this happened on a weekend dedicated to the memory of Martin Luther King Jr., a man dedicated to freedom and integrity of responsibility in equal measure. 

So that's my astrological thought of the moment. But at least you know what this astrologer thinks about while doing their everyday things. And with this off my mind that merely leaves Wikileaks and the country of Switzerland (as in, why are their banks so darn famous?) on my desk.

But that’s for another day. Enough of planetary matters. I need to go spend an hour or two relaxing right here on Earth.

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!