Obama and the Ocean of Myth

“The old Chinese saying is fitting: the plans of man are no match for the plans of the heavens. What people must now ask is, can Obama become the proverbial hero made by the times?”  Watching America by Tao Wenzhao November 5, 2008

In a recent comment to a post in which I said McCain would win the presidency, a reader mocked that since Obama had won by a wide margin didn’t that prove astrology doesn’t work. I gave a rather lame response, answering in part:

“-many things go into the final selection (of the president). Not the least of which is the collective need of the people.”

I’ve been mulling this over ever since. “The collective need of the people?”

We saw the results, but what is this “collective need”? During the entire election process I was puzzled by the overwhelming aspects of Neptune in the charts I drew, of the candidates, the United States, and the transits. Its other-worldly vibrations seemed to be everywhere, its symbol peering at me from every chart I drew. At the same time transiting Neptune, a very slow-moving outer planet, had been squaring my natal Mars for the past two years. I repeatedly asked myself: Where am I being pressured (square) by my inner spiritual needs, to direct my energies?

And then I ran across a statement by Dane Rudhyar:  “Transits of Neptune refer to the pressure of collective or group factors upon the individual fighting for his right to be an individual.”

A Small Collective Event

On June 13, 2008 my home was almost destroyed by the Cedar Rapids, Iowa flood, and is still being rebuilt. Neptune also rules water and Mars also rules injury — my property was injured by water. However, about 4000 homes were damaged or destroyed in the flood. How were the other 3,999 related to mine? In a mundane sense we were all in physical proximity to a flooding river, experiencing a collective event. However, as a student of astrology I’m impelled to search for a deeper personal meaning for my life,  but I’ll save that for another post.

Neptune and the Larger Collective

Psychologically, Neptune represents our ideals. Some will find it in religion and it puts us in touch with the need to have faith, to trust in what is unknown. It gives inspiration to the arts and to the mystic, the humanitarian, and has been called the higher octave of Venus, the planet of love. It reflects our perception of the divine and the urge to merge with something greater than ourselves. It represents our dreams.

But some dreams die in tragedy and myths are made. Our dream of Camelot ended many years ago with the assassination of a beloved president, and the dreams of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were cut down in their prime. The fading myth of Camelot remained only in the collective conscious of the people. Since then we’ve been starved for myth, even as the world exploded with new technology, and other changes initiated by Uranus and structured by Saturn. Neptune’s influence was there too, moving slowly through our subconscious, casting its ethereal glow into the hearts and minds of the people.

All these influences are only influences and are neither good nor bad. It is up to us how we chose to use them, for good or ill. Some felt the warming rays of universal love, while others found new paths to deception, hiding their deeds in a Neptunian fog.

So the people suffered and the call went forth in a collective cry, and was answered with a riddle. Which myth doth thou want? That of the old warrior who has been tested by the proverbial fire and proved his mettle, or the untested youth with a head full of dreams? The vestiges of the myth of Camelot was awakened as a new warrior appeared, by the name of Obama.

As for McCain, although he had the ability and experience, at the end he fell on his sword. If he’d gone to DC to slay the dragon instead of voting for the bailout he may have won. Who knows? The myth of Camelot was strong, fed by Neptunian illusions throughout Obama’s candidacy.

The collective need of the people was for a hero, a conqueror who would solve all their ills. If Obama comes even close to meeting those needs, then he has been ordained by fate to serve the people, not only of this land but of the world. But he is already being tested and Neptunian delusions created by those who would use her influence for ill-gotten gains still hide within the fog.

A future collective event looms in the mist; will Obama become the proverbial hero made by the times? Or will the times expose and break him, sending yet another martyr  into the teeming ocean of myth?