Can the Corporations Ever be Corralled?

Among the archives at Daykeeper Journal, website of the late Maya del Mar, astrologer, I found this article which, though written in 2002, is even more relevant today. We are now just a year or so away from that key date mentioned in her last paragraph: 2020. The "democratic movement" has shifted towards the left in recent years, but the establishment, corporate Democrats will be loath to let go of the reins and allow such candidates as Bernie Sanders to take over. I suspect a few more years will still have to pass, after 2020, before the final exit of the corporate Democrat clan.

Why Corporations Rule the Nation
Ms del Mar began thus:

"Corporations provide the matrix for our lives.

Our lives are shaped and governed by corporations. The consumer culture, the sea in which we live, is run by corporate image-making, advertising, and media control. Corporate values become cultural values. Corporate politics become government politics. Every area of our lives is fashioned by the dominant corporate culture.

The corporate movement grows implacably, like a giant amoeba, and threatens to take over the world, and destroy it in the process. As it grows, it shuts out democracy and effective decision-making. It is no wonder that people have quit voting and quit paying attention to civic life. We feel disempowered—and in many ways we are.

How can astrology shed light on this growth of corporate power?

She explains the cycles of the outer planets and the relevance of those current at the time of writing. She then goes on to look at the chart for the birth of the USA using 4 July 1776 at 5:10 PM, Philadelphia.

The United States has a lucky chart. The U.S. Declaration of Independence chart (7-4-1776, 5:10 p.m., Philadelphia) is blessed with a grand earth trine, which means material success comes easily to this nation........... We have the resources to enable us to develop models for harmonious, bountiful living.

However, this great gift of earth energy has been co-opted by corporations, and much of it transformed into toxins and garbage. The early idealistic political vision of Americans has been gradually subverted by the corporate bottom line of making profit for the corporation. Earth, tangible goods, is also the raw material of corporations.

The U.S. chart is also fortunate in having a Sagittarius Ascendant. This makes Jupiter the chart ruler, governing all U.S. expression of energy. Jupiter is the greater benefic, and shows good fortune and expansion. It is also especially associated with corporations (and old boys’ groups).

20-year Jupiter-Saturn cycles show the social-business character of our everyday lives...........For most of this nation’s history, we have had Jupiter and Saturn joining every 20 years in earth signs.... This earth phase really went into full gear in 1842, as the Civil War was building up...... We have just experienced our last Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in earth signs for the next 600 years, in May of 2000. This one was at 23 Taurus. Taurus is the most fixed, determined, and possessive of the earth signs. It is loathe to let go. The last conjunction in Taurus was in 1881, which began the "gilded age," the time of millionaires, consolidations, mansions, and high living. Corporations came into their own then.

Now we are closing the long earth cycle with Taurus. Will corporations extend their power, as they have in the past? Will we, the people, look at their excesses and corruption, and decide to take charge of them again? Will we reclaim democracy? Or will it be that the 200-year earth period was the time for corporations to grow into ruling the world — regardless of who and what gets hurt and destroyed?

This last Taurus conjunction in May 2000 ties in very nicely with the U.S. chart. It helps U.S. corporations move ahead with the steamroller effect until 2020, when we begin the air cycle in Aquarius. In the meantime we can begin to rebuild a democratic movement, and be ready to emerge with some sovereign infrastructure by 2020.

"WE THE ......" ?

Among the archives at Daykeeper Journal, website of the late Maya del Mar, astrologer, are two of her essays which, though written 12 years ago, in 2002, are even more pertinent today.


In the first piece: Why Corporations Rule the Nation Ms del Mar began:

Corporations provide the matrix for our lives.

 photo by by Neil Whitelaw

Our lives are shaped and governed by corporations. The consumer culture, the sea in which we live, is run by corporate image-making, advertising, and media control. Corporate values become cultural values. Corporate politics become government politics. Every area of our lives is fashioned by the dominant corporate culture.

The corporate movement grows implacably, like a giant amoeba, and threatens to take over the world, and destroy it in the process. As it grows, it shuts out democracy and effective decision-making. It is no wonder that people have quit voting and quit paying attention to civic life. We feel disempowered—and in many ways we are.

How can astrology shed light on this growth of corporate power?

Maya explained the cycles of the outer planets and the relevance of those current at the time of writing. She then went on to look at the chart for the birth of the USA using 4 July 1776 at 5:10 PM, Philadelphia. Snips:

The United States has a lucky chart.

The U.S. Declaration of Independence chart (7-4-1776, 5:10 p.m., Philadelphia) is blessed with a grand earth trine, which means material success comes easily to this nation....................... We have the resources to enable us to develop models for harmonious, bountiful living.

However, this great gift of earth energy has been co-opted by corporations, and much of it transformed into toxins and garbage. The early idealistic political vision of Americans has been gradually subverted by the corporate bottom line of making profit for the corporation. Earth, tangible goods, is also the raw material of corporations.

The U.S. chart is also fortunate in having a Sagittarius Ascendant. This makes Jupiter the chart ruler, governing all U.S. expression of energy. Jupiter is the greater benefic, and shows good fortune and expansion. It is also especially associated with corporations (and old boys’ groups).

20-year Jupiter-Saturn cycles show the social-business character of our everyday lives.............................For most of this nation’s history, we have had Jupiter and Saturn joining every 20 years in earth signs.... This earth phase really went into full gear in 1842, as the Civil War was building up...... We have just experienced our last Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in earth signs for the next 600 years, in May of 2000. This one was at 23 Taurus. Taurus is the most fixed, determined, and possessive of the earth signs. It is loathe to let go. The last conjunction in Taurus was in 1881, which began the "gilded age," the time of millionaires, consolidations, mansions, and high living. Corporations came into their own then.

Now we are closing the long earth cycle with Taurus. Will corporations extend their power, as they have in the past? Will we, the people, look at their excesses and corruption, and decide to take charge of them again? Will we reclaim democracy? Or will it be that the 200-year earth period was the time for corporations to grow into ruling the world?—regardless of who and what gets hurt and destroyed?

This last Taurus conjunction in May 2000 ties in very nicely with the U.S. chart. It helps U.S. corporations move ahead with the steamroller effect until 2020, when we begin the air cycle in Aquarius. In the meantime we can begin to rebuild a democratic movement, and be ready to emerge with some sovereign infrastructure by 2020.

In the second piece, also from 2002, Maya del Mar reviews a book of essays: Defying Corporations, Defining Democracy ed. by Dean Ritz.
She writes:

We take corporations for granted. This is it. This is how life is. We let them define our entire culture, including our political scene, without really asking, "Hey, what’s going on?"

We also take them for granted as we try to fight them—regulation by regulation, harm by harm, in thousands of little battles. And still they grow more powerful. In fact, the first regulatory agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission, was established in 1887 at the behest of the railroads to reduce competition, and staffed by railroad people.

It wasn’t this way when the nation was founded. The rebellion against England was, in fact, against corporate charters given by the King to certain companies.

Those who won independence from England hated corporations as much as they hated the King.

The men of property who wrote the Constitution did not want the King’s unfair, oppressive competition. They determined to hold corporations in check. They chartered only a handful of corporations in the decades after independence, and when they did they severely limited a corporation’s powers, purpose, capitalization, and length of existence.

Here are the kinds of limitations that were once law in nearly every state:
Corporations were required to have a clear purpose, to be fulfilled, but not exceeded.

Corporations’ licenses were revocable by state legislatures for any of a great number of reasons, including doing harm to the common good or general welfare.

The act of incorporation did not relieve management or stockholders of responsibility or liability for corporate acts.

As a matter of course, corporation officers, directors, or agents could be held criminally liable for breaking the law.

State (not federal) courts heard cases where corporations or their agents were accused of breaking the law or harming the public.

Directors of the corporation were required to come from among the stockholders.

Corporations had to have their headquarters and meetings in the state where their principal place of business was located.

Corporation charters were granted for a specific period of time, such as 20 years.

Corporations were prohibited from owning stock in other corporations.

Corporations’ real estate holdings were limited to what was necessary to carry out that specific purpose.

Corporations were prohibited from making any political contributions, direct or indirect.

Corporations were prohibited from making charitable or civic donations.

State legislatures set the rates that corporations could charge for their products or services.

All corporation records and documents were open to the legislature.

However, gradually, as people forgot the original corporate excesses, the legislatures dropped their vigilance, and corporate power grew and grew, helped in large part by judges educated in the same law schools as were the corporate attorneys. Many states still have pieces of these laws on the books. However, corporations have established a group of attorneys whose job is to infiltrate states one by one and get these remnants inconspicuously wiped off the record—in the name of "modernizing corporate law statutes."

The coup d’etat occurred when in 1886 the U.S. Supreme Court decreed that corporations are "persons" under the Fourteenth Amendment. This ruling gave corporations almost unprecedented "rights" to question almost any law applied to them and frustrated the ability of the people to direct corporate action in service of the public good. Nearly all of the cases brought under the 14th Amendment are corporate cases, not cases about the equal rights of people!

The question is, "Who’s in charge here?" Corporations are only legal fictions, created by law, controllable by law, and dissolvable by law. They have used cunning propaganda to make us forget that. And in the process we have forgotten democracy, and the sovereignty (imperfect as it is) of the people.

Defying Corporations, Defining Democracy is an extremely illuminating, provocative and helpful book, as well as being easy to read. I strongly recommend that we all read and use it, in our efforts to reclaim democracy.

Words of Wisdom from 3 Female Astrologers

British Astrologer Ingrid Lind from 20th century:

It is fatal to think of "the Stars" as determinants. We must not turn them into inexorable or malignant gods. This is altogether to mistake their power and to misunderstand the function of astrology, which is to give us a glimpse of a cosmic purpose with which we should try to harmonise. A man imprisoned in Saturn's dungeons may find real freedom in himself, and the chaos of disillusion of Neptune may drive him inwards until he finds the secret of his own integrity. Hard times may turn him into a walking complaint or he may learn to enjoy freedom from possessions. There is no difficult condition that courage cannot turn to good use.
(From the Conclusion to her book Astrology & Commonsense.)

Astrologer Liz Greene:

I do not think we have lost our fear of fate, although we mock it; for if the modern individual were so truly enlightened beyond this ‘paganish’ concept, he would not surreptitiously read astrology columns in the newspaper, nor evidence the compulsion to ridicule whenever possible the spokesmen of fate. Nor would he be so fascinated by prophecy, which is fate’s handmaiden.

The late Maya del Mar, written in 2003: excerpt from a Special Message, "Future Note: The State of the World".

Maya died in November 2006. Her words echo down the years.

"In the 50's, how many of us expected the revolution of the 60's, which loosened up the whole tightly wound society? It was a huge breath of fresh air, and it was strongly resisted by the power structures. At that time we had a big outer planet conjunction—Pluto and Uranus meeting. Pluto is transformation and Uranus is revolution, so together they started a major reform cycle.

We are approaching the first big turning point of that cycle. Uranus will square Pluto from 2010-2012, and the push for change will be irresistible. This process begins with Pluto entering the cardinal sign of Capricorn in January 2008, and continues with Uranus entering the cardinal sign of Aries in May 2010. Cardinal signs mean action, and we will be caught up in a whirlwind of activity. Uranus in Aries means a new beginning in the assertion of independence.

Hold the light!"

(Engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi : Two women with the signs of Libra and Scorpio)

Maya del Mar on USA, Corporations, Planetary Cycles, the Future.

Among the archives at Daykeeper Journal, website of the late Maya del Mar, astrologer, I found a couple of her articles which, on this Independence Day are of particular interest. They were written nine years ago, in 2002, but are even more relevant today.

In the first piece: Why Corporations Rule the Nation Ms del Mar began thus:

Corporations provide the matrix for our lives.

Our lives are shaped and governed by corporations. The consumer culture, the sea in which we live, is run by corporate image-making, advertising, and media control. Corporate values become cultural values. Corporate politics become government politics. Every area of our lives is fashioned by the dominant corporate culture.

The corporate movement grows implacably, like a giant amoeba, and threatens to take over the world, and destroy it in the process. As it grows, it shuts out democracy and effective decision-making. It is no wonder that people have quit voting and quit paying attention to civic life. We feel disempowered—and in many ways we are.

How can astrology shed light on this growth of corporate power?

She explains the cycles of the outer planets and the relevance of those current at the time of writing. She then goes on to look at the chart for the birth of the USA using 4 July 1776 at 5:10 PM, Philadelphia. Snips:

The United States has a lucky chart.

The U.S. Declaration of Independence chart (7-4-1776, 5:10 p.m., Philadelphia) is blessed with a grand earth trine, which means material success comes easily to this nation....................... We have the resources to enable us to develop models for harmonious, bountiful living.

However, this great gift of earth energy has been co-opted by corporations, and much of it transformed into toxins and garbage. The early idealistic political vision of Americans has been gradually subverted by the corporate bottom line of making profit for the corporation. Earth, tangible goods, is also the raw material of corporations.

The U.S. chart is also fortunate in having a Sagittarius Ascendant. This makes Jupiter the chart ruler, governing all U.S. expression of energy. Jupiter is the greater benefic, and shows good fortune and expansion. It is also especially associated with corporations (and old boys’ groups).

20-year Jupiter-Saturn cycles show the social-business character of our everyday lives.............................For most of this nation’s history, we have had Jupiter and Saturn joining every 20 years in earth signs.... This earth phase really went into full gear in 1842, as the Civil War was building up...... We have just experienced our last Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in earth signs for the next 600 years, in May of 2000. This one was at 23 Taurus. Taurus is the most fixed, determined, and possessive of the earth signs. It is loathe to let go. The last conjunction in Taurus was in 1881, which began the "gilded age," the time of millionaires, consolidations, mansions, and high living. Corporations came into their own then.

Now we are closing the long earth cycle with Taurus. Will corporations extend their power, as they have in the past? Will we, the people, look at their excesses and corruption, and decide to take charge of them again? Will we reclaim democracy? Or will it be that the 200-year earth period was the time for corporations to grow into ruling the world?—regardless of who and what gets hurt and destroyed?

This last Taurus conjunction in May 2000 ties in very nicely with the U.S. chart. It helps U.S. corporations move ahead with the steamroller effect until 2020, when we begin the air cycle in Aquarius. In the meantime we can begin to rebuild a democratic movement, and be ready to emerge with some sovereign infrastructure by 2020.

In the second piece, also from 2002, Maya del Mar reviews a book of essays: Defying Corporations, Defining Democracy ed. by Dean Ritz.
She writes:

We take corporations for granted. This is it. This is how life is. We let them define our entire culture, including our political scene, without really asking, "Hey, what’s going on?"

We also take them for granted as we try to fight them—regulation by regulation, harm by harm, in thousands of little battles. And still they grow more powerful. In fact, the first regulatory agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission, was established in 1887 at the behest of the railroads to reduce competition, and staffed by railroad people.

It wasn’t this way when the nation was founded. The rebellion against England was, in fact, against corporate charters given by the King to certain companies.

Those who won independence from England hated corporations as much as they hated the King.

The men of property who wrote the Constitution did not want the King’s unfair, oppressive competition. They determined to hold corporations in check. They chartered only a handful of corporations in the decades after independence, and when they did they severely limited a corporation’s powers, purpose, capitalization, and length of existence.

Here are the kinds of limitations that were once law in nearly every state:
Corporations were required to have a clear purpose, to be fulfilled, but not exceeded.

Corporations’ licenses were revocable by state legislatures for any of a great number of reasons, including doing harm to the common good or general welfare.

The act of incorporation did not relieve management or stockholders of responsibility or liability for corporate acts.

As a matter of course, corporation officers, directors, or agents could be held criminally liable for breaking the law.

State (not federal) courts heard cases where corporations or their agents were accused of breaking the law or harming the public.

Directors of the corporation were required to come from among the stockholders.

Corporations had to have their headquarters and meetings in the state where their principal place of business was located.

Corporation charters were granted for a specific period of time, such as 20 years.

Corporations were prohibited from owning stock in other corporations.

Corporations’ real estate holdings were limited to what was necessary to carry out that specific purpose.

Corporations were prohibited from making any political contributions, direct or indirect.

Corporations were prohibited from making charitable or civic donations.

State legislatures set the rates that corporations could charge for their products or services.

All corporation records and documents were open to the legislature.

However, gradually, as people forgot the original corporate excesses, the legislatures dropped their vigilance, and corporate power grew and grew, helped in large part by judges educated in the same law schools as were the corporate attorneys. Many states still have pieces of these laws on the books. However, corporations have established a group of attorneys whose job is to infiltrate states one by one and get these remnants inconspicuously wiped off the record—in the name of "modernizing corporate law statutes."

The coup d’etat occurred when in 1886 the U.S. Supreme Court decreed that corporations are "persons" under the Fourteenth Amendment. This ruling gave corporations almost unprecedented "rights" to question almost any law applied to them and frustrated the ability of the people to direct corporate action in service of the public good. Nearly all of the cases brought under the 14th Amendment are corporate cases, not cases about the equal rights of people!

The question is, "Who’s in charge here?" Corporations are only legal fictions, created by law, controllable by law, and dissolvable by law. They have used cunning propaganda to make us forget that. And in the process we have forgotten democracy, and the sovereignty (imperfect as it is) of the people.

Okie Horror & Astrologers' Words of Wisdom #5 ~ "Hold the Light"

Sometimes I'm left wordless by the actions of those in power in this god-forsaken state in which I live. God-forsaken in the midst of the Bible-belt? Yes. If there is a god he/she will long ago have de-camped from this land of hypocrisy.

The Oklahoma Legislature voted Tuesday to override the governor's vetoes of two abortion measures, one of which requires women to undergo a mandatory vaginal ultrasound procedure (inserting a tiny camera into the vagina), and listen to a detailed description of the fetus before getting an abortion. Though other states have passed similar measures requiring women to have ultrasounds, Oklahoma's law goes further, mandating that a doctor or technician set up the monitor so the woman can see it and describe the heart, limbs and organs of the fetus. No exceptions are made for rape and incest victims. A second measure passed into law on Tuesday prevents women who have had a disabled baby from suing a doctor for withholding information about birth defects while the child was in the womb.

These same legislators fought the health care reform bill - a bill pathetic enough after weak-kneed Democrats failed to fight for what was really needed.
Oklahoma legislators want to bring more unwanted children into the world but fail to provide for their health later on, and will happily send them, when fully grown, to snuff out other civilian lives - women and children - in foreign countries. Pro-life? I think not. Pro death penalty. Pro-gun (an instrument with one purpose only : death).

A couple of comments from beneath the Huffington Post article linked below:

Eighty percent of Oklahomans call themselves Christian fundamentalists. Southern Baptists and Church of Christ members (the two dominate religions in Oklahoma) are taught that women should be submissive to their husbands. This may explain why Oklahoma leads the nation in domestic abuse. If you see women as inferior it is easy to take their rights away and treat them as incompetent fools. The saddest thing about all this is that it was female legislators pushing these bills in Oklahoma. The brain washing begins in Sunday School. I know because I was told there that girls are just not meant to be leaders.
(Okiemama)

The ground was being prepared for these anti-women actions for years by a right wing religious culture which was given credence by so called moderate democrats and the moronic media accepting the intrusion of religion into government. Now we have a president who openly flirts with these reactionary preachers and has prayer days with them and many of these so called pro-life men are just women haters. This is the beginning of a blooming theocracy.
(Countess)

And one, more positive, comment which links to my original post, Astrologers' Words of Wisdom #5 which follows:

This country is full of overt and closet racists. This was bound to happen with a first non-white president. Let it all shake out. There's no turning back now. I may be in the minority but I have nothing but good feelings about the future of inter-racial harmony in America and on Earth.
(lightist)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/us/28abortion.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-daou/oklahomas-draconian-anti_b_555064.html
http://oklahomacitizen.org/2010/04/28/ok-anti-abortion-laws-widely-reported-denounced

From the late Maya del Mar in 2003:

Excerpt from a special message
"Future Note: The State of the World".

Maya died in November 2006.

Her words echo down the years.

"In the 50's, how many of us expected the revolution of the 60's, which loosened up the whole tightly wound society? It was a huge breath of fresh air, and it was strongly resisted by the power structures. At that time we had a big outer planet conjunction—Pluto and Uranus meeting. Pluto is transformation and Uranus is revolution, so together they started a major reform cycle.

We are approaching the first big turning point of that cycle. Uranus will square Pluto from 2010-2012, and the push for change will be irresistible. This process begins with Pluto entering the cardinal sign of Capricorn in January 2008, and continues with Uranus entering the cardinal sign of Aries in May 2010. Cardinal signs mean action, and we will be caught up in a whirlwind of activity. Uranus in Aries means a new beginning in the assertion of independence.

Hold the light!"

Help "from the other side"?

I sometimes wish that I'd experienced more elections in the USA. There's one politician in particular I'd like to have seen in action, and, if he had lived, perhaps running for the nation's highest office, President of the USA: Democratic Senator Paul Wellstone, who died in a plane crash in October 2002.



From an excellent article about Paul Wellstone by astrologer, Maya del Mar:
"Paul Wellstone, Man of the People". It starts:

"Senator Paul Wellstone’s plane crashed in northern Minnesota at 10:00 a.m. on October 25, killing him, his wife, their daughter, several campaign aides, and two pilots. He was there to attend the funeral of a co-worker, taking that time even in the midst of a hard-fought campaign. That’s how Paul Wellstone was; he really cared about people. Many saw him as their best friend."

Later in the article :

"Paul Wellstone was born on July 21, 1944 in Washington DC. His chart was dominated by Cancer Sun and Cancer planets, and Leo Moon and Leo planets. He was a quintessential Cancer-Leo, the man of the people, spreading sunshine to his audience. Someone said that the room lit up when he came into it. Leo likes its audience, and enjoys talking—witness Bill Clinton and Fidel Castro."

(In Wellstone's chart Sun and Saturn are in Cancer, Mars in Virgo and every other personal planet in Leo.)

And, poignantly:

"He died at this time of year when the veil is thinnest, and I feel him very close to the progressive movement, picking up on this crucial moment in time. Perhaps as its soul, he is more effective working on the other side."

Now, in 2008, comedian and Democrat, Al Franken is running for Paul Wellstone's old Senatorial seat in Minnesota, against present incumbent, Republican Norm Coleman. According to polls reported at Real Clear Politics HERE, Franken is leading in all but one poll.

Although I'm not sure I believe that people can "work from the other side", I do enjoy the idea that the late Paul Wellstone is indeed doing so this time around, when the country is most in need of his assistance, both locally and nationally.

From an article by Ezra Klein, written a year ago, to mark the fifth anniversary of Wellstone's death - "Remembering Paul Wellstone":

"Economic inequality, wage stagnation, and the health care crisis dominate the Democrats' domestic agenda, just as Wellstone always said they should. It's easier to be a liberal today, to be a progressive, to be proud. But there was a time when it wasn't. When liberalism in defense of peace was mocked, and moderation in service of imperialism was praised. In those days, it was hard to be a liberal. It must have been hard to be Paul Wellstone. He never showed it, though. He liked to quote Marcia Timmel. "I'm so small and the darkness is so great," she said. "We must light a candle," Wellstone would reply. He was ours. Would that he was here to enjoy the dawn. "

Indeed! Perhaps he is.